Arctic Change Information for a Broad Audience

Demonstrable environmental changes have occurred in the Arctic over the past three decades. NOAA's Arctic Theme Page is a rich resource web site focused on high latitude studies and the Arctic, with links to widely distributed data and information focused on the Arctic. Included is a collection of essays on relevant topics by experts in Arctic research. The website has proven useful to a wide audience, including scientists, students, teachers, decision makers and the general public, as indicated through recognition by USA Today, Science magazine, etc. (http://www.arctic.noaa.gov) Working jointly with NSF and the University of Washington's Polar Science Center as part of the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) program, NOAA has developed a website for access to pan-Arctic time series spanning diverse data types including climate indices, atmospheric, oceanic, sea ice, terrestrial, biological and fisheries. Modest analysis functions and more detailed analysis results are provided. (http://www.unaami.noaa.gov/). This paper will describe development of an Artic Change Detection status website to provide a direct and comprehensive view of previous and ongoing change in the Arctic for a broad climate community. For example, composite metrics are developed using principal component analysis based on 86 multivariate pan-Arctic time series for seven data types. Two of these metrics can be interpreted as a regime change/trend component and an interdecadal component. Changes can also be visually observed through tracking of 28 separate biophysical indicators. Results will be presented in the form of a web site with relevant, easily understood, value-added knowledge backed by peer review from Arctic scientists and scientific journals.