Ocean-atmosphere interaction and climate change from an Arctic perspective

Peter Schlosser, Columbia University, New York

There is broad consensus that anthropogenic forcing has led to significant climate change and that under reasonable scenarios further climate change will occur in the near- and long-term future. Global projections have suggested early on that in the Arctic such changes would be visible early on through amplified signals. Indeed observations conducted in many of the Arctic subsystems are now showing environmental change of unprecedented scope. In this contribution, the recent observations of climate change in the Arctic ocean/sea ice/atmosphere system are reviewed and likely future scenarios are discussed. The expected changes in the climate system are placed into the context of interlinked changes in the other domains of the Arctic including the anthrosphere. Known and possible future impacts of the observed changes on the Arctic system itself and on lower latitudes are presented.