Antonio Ruiz de Elvira
Professor of Applied Physics and Honorary Research Professor at the University of Alcalá
The record temperatures at the poles are due to global warming caused by the accumulation of polyatomic gases in the atmosphere, which raises the temperature, especially at the surface of the oceans. This warmer surface displaces masses of warm air towards the polar regions, which, although smaller in area than those in the mid-latitudes, become warmer as the heat concentrates.
In the Arctic, moreover, there is a year-to-year feedback in the thawing tundra, which increases its melting each summer, and reduces the mirror effect of the ice. In the Antarctic, the warmer sea is moving ever closer to the continent. This warming of the polar areas is common to global warming.
The warming of the poles is of great concern, because if they were to melt completely, they would no longer reflect solar radiation, which would be absorbed and further warm the Earth. A warmer polar region in the northern hemisphere means a greater release of the methane that has so far been trapped under the ice, which has a warming effect 40 times greater than that of CO2.
Warmer poles radically change the circulation of air masses, increasing weather extremes, especially in Spanish latitudes: more cold and heat waves, more droughts and more torrential rains and floods.