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This monograph presents a comprehensive synthesis of our current state of knowledge concerning the climate of the Arctic, using the latest meteorological data. All meteorological elements are described in detail for the first time and an up-to-date review of the available literature for each element is given. Climatic regions are distinguished and described. The monograph also provides an account of the present state of research on climate change and variability in the Arctic for three time scales: the Holocene, the last Millennium, and the 20th century. The book concludes with a presentation of the scenarios of the Arctic climate in the 21st century. This monograph is intended for all those with a general interest in the fields of meteorology, climatology, and with a knowledge of the application of statistics in these areas.
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PREFACE Towards the end of the 19* century some researchers put forward the hypothesis that the Polar regions may play the key role in the shaping of the global climate. This supposition found its full confirmation in empirical and model research conducted in the 20* century, particularly in recent decades. The intensification of the global wanning after about 1975 brought into focus the physical causes of this phenomenon. The first climatic models created at that titrte, and the analyses of long observation series consistently showed that the Polar regions are the most sensitive to climatic changes. This aroused the interest of numerous researchers, who thought that the examination of the processes taking place in these regions might help to detennine the mechanisms responsible for the ,,working" of the global climatic system. To date, a great number of publications on this issue have been published. However, as a review of the literature shows, there is not a single monograph which comprises the basic information concerning the current state of the Arctic climate. The last study to discuss the climate of the Arctic in any depth was published in 1970 (Climates of the Polar Regions, vol. 14, ed. S. Orvig) by the World Survey of Climatology, edited by H. E. Landsberg. This publication, however, does not provide the full climatic picture of many meteorological elements. The issue of climatic changes is raised only cursorily and the information provided is now long outdated. As far as the Antarctic is concerned, the situation is far better for there are numerous synthetic works on Antarctic climatology in many languages. It was the rather astonishing paucity of academic studies concerning the climate of the Arctic that prompted my decision to embark on a work which aimed at filling this gap. This sort of compilation work, which sums up the present state of knowledge on the subject, can only be successfully accomplished if it is done in a well-equipped library. This is why most of the present book was written in the Scott Polar Research Institute library, Cambridge, UK, which, in all likelihood, contains the most comprehensive collection of Polar literature. The primary aim of the publication is to present the current state of knowledge concerning the Arctic climate using, whenever possible, the latest meteorological data. In view of the importance of climatic changes, this issue has been given more attention than is customary in similar studies. It is now commonly accepted that the mean physical state of the atmosphere is one of the key elements of the Arctic climatic system. Consequently, IX
a variety of climatic data is indispensable not only for climatologists, but also for other researchers ofthe Arctic environment (glaciologists, oceanographers, botanists, etc.). Up-to-date and reliable climatic data are also requisite to validate climatic models. The author hopes that the book will be of particular interest to all researchers who represent the above scientific disciplines in their r