Arctic Report Card 2012

Arctic Report Card 2012: The 2012 Arctic Report Card is an annual description of the state of the Arctic that is sponsored by NOAA. The first Arctic Report Card was published in in 2006. Nearly 150 scientists from 15 countries contributed to this year's report. A major finding of the Report Card 2012 is that numerous record-setting melting events occurred, even though, with the exception of a few limited episodes, Arctic-wide it was an unremarkable year, relative to the previous decade, for a primary driver of melting - surface air temperatures. From October 2011 through August 2012, positive (warm) temperature anomalies were relatively small over the central Arctic compared to conditions in recent years (2003-2010). Yet, in spite of these relatively moderate conditions, new records were set for sea ice extent, terrestrial snow extent, melting at the surface of the Greenland ice sheet, and permafrost temperature.