Arctic summer sea-ice extent exhibits a sharp declining trend, and the induced atmospheric warming at high latitudes in autumn has potentially important consequences for the climate of Europe and Asia. On the other hand, North America, Europe, and East Asia have experienced anomalously cold winters with record high snowfalls during some recent winters. The autumn snow cover over Eurasia is increasing, while in spring, the snow decline at high northern latitudes is the largest cryospheric change in terms of spatial extent.
The global warming is enhanced in the Arctic where surface air temperature has increased twice as much as the global average in recent decades, also called Arctic amplification. Arctic warming implies melting of sea ice, but its dynamic-thermodynamic response is neither straightforward
or necessarily linear, nor is the response of the atmosphere to sea ice
reductions. Satellite observations (1979 to present) show that the Arctic
Focus on changes that will happen in the near future, with the overarching goal of fostering responsible and sustainable development.
A key objective in ARCPATH as a multidisciplinary project is to use downscaled predictions to better understand and assess, and thereby reduce and prepare for, risks with shipping in sea-ice infested and potentially stormier waters, with extreme weather conditions, in a region largely unprepared to cope with major environmental accidents such as oil spills at sea.
InterDec aims at understanding the origin of decadal-scale climate variability in different regions of the world and their linkages, using observational data sets and through coordinated multi-model experiments.
1. We will investigate inter-regional and inter-basin linkages on sub-seasonal to interannual time scales, achieved mainly through atmospheric teleconnections. At present, the role of air-sea interactions among different latitude belts in the Atlantic and Pacific, and of stratosphere -troposphere coupling in these linkages has not been clarified.
The sail-off meeting of Nordic Center of Excellence Arctic Climate Predictions: Pathways to Resilient, Sustainable Societies (ARCPATH)took place at Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC) during April 11. and 12. 2016. ARCPATH is funded by the Nordic Council and includes nine partners from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland in addition to Canadian, Chinese, Russian and US partners.
IMOS will support long-term synergistic cooperation between Russian and Norwegian scientists working in Svalbard by establishing a joint marine plankton observatory in Isfjorden.
Isfjorden is the largest fjord system in Svalbard, located in the dynamic transition zone between warm Atlantic and colder Arctic climate regimes. We will expand the existing time series on seasonal hydrography and plankton dynamics in ice-free Adventfjorden (since 2009) and seasonal ice covered Billefjorden (since 2001) with an observatory located in the mouth of Isfjorden close to Barentsburg and an observatory in the deep Karlskronadjupet, close to Longyearbyen.
The overall objective of PRACTICE is to establish a basis for interannual to decadal prediction of Arctic/North Atlantic climate.
The Bergen community has key competence and infrastructure in the observed and modelled circulation and dynamics of the North Atlantic/Nordic Seas/Arctic Ocean climate system, including both an established Earth System Model and an advanced operational ocean-ice forecasting system focused on the high northern latitudes and Arctic sea ice. There have been several recent developments that corroborate the above and further suggest that the Bergen community is well positioned to take on the challenge of climate
Nansen Fellow Prof Ola M. Johannessen and colleagues at the Nansen International Center in St. Petersburg and Uni Research have published the paper 
