Methane measurements in the Arctic Circle may be critical to controlling global temperature rise
A team of researchers are working to uncover the causes of a mysterious rise in atmospheric methane, which threatens to derail plans to limit global temperature rise.
Their latest measurement campaign took place in the Arctic Circle, where researchers have identified that melting permafrosts are one potential source of increasing methane emissions.
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and emissions have been rising rapidly over the last ten years. Its warming effect on our climate is around 34 times greater than carbon dioxide over a one hundred year period.
NCAS supports biggest ever Arctic research expedition
The Arctic is a region of great sensitivity to climate change and is warming twice as fast as other regions on Earth. UK research teams have joined the first ever year-round expedition into the central Arctic Ocean, to undertake ground-breaking studies into the Arctic climate system during the middle of the polar night.
The expedition, called The Multi-Disciplinary drifting Observatory for the study of Arctic Climate programme (MOSAiC), will see the German research icebreaker RV Polarstern frozen into the Arctic sea ice and then drift across the top of the Arctic Ocean.
The signs and impacts of global warming are speeding up
The world’s leading climate science organisations have joined forces to launch a new report ahead of key UN talks in New York, which states the latest science on climate change and shines a light on the signs and impacts of global warming.
Climate change is accelerating, with sea levels rising and ice sheets melting faster than ever. The five-year period from 2014 to 2019 is the warmest on record, as carbon dioxide emissions have hit new highs.