Advances in Remote Sensing Technology and the Three Poles

31 Indian and International Research Coordination in the Arctic

Archana Singh^1,*, T. David¹, and K.P. Krishnan¹

¹ National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Vasco-Da-Gama 403804, Goa, India ^* Corresponding author

31.1 The Changing Arctic and Inherited Interest

With the whole world experiencing warming trends, the Arctic has warmed up almost four times faster than the rest of the globe since 1979 (Rantanen et al., 2022). The region is also experiencing intensified precipitation and winds.

Increasing air and sea surface temperatures are leading to a decrease in the sea ice extent (Overland et al., 2019; Docquier et al., 2021). Many of the Arctic regions have become sea ice free in summers, which has brought Arctic sea ice to its minimum levels in recent years (Parkinson and DiGirolamo, 2021). Similarly, the winter sea ice is also on decline (Park et al., 2015). Loss of sea ice is paving the way for more open waters that absorb more heat, as the darker color of water reflects less and thus has less albedo. The warmer waters further melt more ice, pushing the Arctic into positive ice-albedo feedback (Kashiwase et al., 2017). Sea ice-free waters are also prone to strong polar winds influencing the mixing and stratification of the water column (Davis et al., 2016). Overall, these changes are affecting the Arctic marine ecosystem and life in a significant way (Solan et al., 2020). The sea ice decline is distressing for the species that thrive on the ...