On thin ice

Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average. Since Earth’s climate works as a system, the consequences of this rapid warming are not only being felt in this remote polar region, but also across the planet. A better scientific understanding of the complexities of the fragile Arctic environment is critical for policy decisions on climate-change mitigation and adaptation, and for setting up a framework for managing Arctic development sustainably. Information from satellites, such as ESA's CryoSat, orbiting above as well as challenging fieldwork provides the facts on our declining ice. For example, the Polarstern German research icebreaker spent a year trapped and drifting in the sea ice so that scientists from around the world could study the Arctic as the epicentre of global warming and gain fundamental insights that are key to better understand global climate change.