MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/. Russian scientists found that winter temperatures in the Arctic began to rise by several degrees Celsius in 2005 in clear weather due to the surface warming by long-wave radiation that emerges in high concentrations of steam in the Arctic air, the Russian Science Foundation's press service said.

"This study is a significant contribution to understanding current climate change in the Arctic, which is very important for the region's socio-economic development and for planning measures to adapt to climate change," the press service quoted Mikhail Latonin of the Nansen Center (St. Petersburg) as saying. "Obtained results will be used to assess how atmospheric heat and moisture fluxes affect climatic feedback in the Arctic."

The scientist and his colleague, Anna Demchenko, made this discovery while studying changing surface temperatures and near-surface air temperatures, as well as the Arctic's thermal balance between 1959 and 2022. They analyzed data from satellite, aircraft and ground observations of weather and climate changes in the Arctic, combined and systematized in the ERA5 climate database.

They found a sharp temperature spike in the winter of 2005, which occurred mainly over the regions of the Arctic Ocean and the Arctic seas of Russia. This warming, the researchers noted, was accompanied by clear weather and an increase in the strength of the so-called long-wave radiation, produced by water molecules in the Earth's atmosphere that absorb sunlight and heat.

That radiation's increase by 9% in 2005-2022, as calculations showed, was accompanied by an increase in winter air and ground temperatures in the Arctic by about 5 degrees Celsius, compared to previous decades. The scientists explain this warming by the fact that the Arctic's atmosphere is having more water vapor, which air masses may be bringing there from warmer latitudes.

Interestingly, the increase in this long-wave radiation has affected to a greater extent the Eastern hemisphere's northern regions, whereas in the Western Hemisphere those heat flows are directed not towards the Arctic, but in the opposite direction. This has a warming effect on the Arctic's Eastern hemisphere and a cooling effect on its Western hemisphere, which must be taken into account in climate change forecasts for the Arctic for the coming years, the scientists said in conclusion.