New study suggests cyclones in the Arctic are forming more often and getting stronger
A team of Earth scientists from North Carolina State University, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, North Carolina A&T State University, and Sandia National Laboratories has found evidence that suggests cyclones have become more common over the past half-century and have also become stronger.
In their paper published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, the group describes how they gathered resource data from a variety of sites covering decades of environmental research in the Arctic and what they learned about cyclones in the region.
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To find out if such storms are becoming more prevalent, the research group gained access to a large number of data sets that hold climate information about the Arctic, going back to the 1950s. They then made comparisons of cyclones that have occurred over the past seventy years. In so doing, they found that cyclones in the Arctic have been growing bigger and stronger—and they last longer too. They also found that they have been happening more often.
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The team concludes by observing that as more cyclones of larger size strike the Arctic, more sea ice breaks up, speeding up the process of climate change in the region.