If the world drops 3 degrees colder, the Arctic will see 9 to 12 degrees of cooling. If Earth warmed up 3 degrees, the Arctic steams up 9 to 12 degrees.
"What it reinforces is that the Arctic has very strong positive feedbacks," said Gifford Miller of the University of Colorado.
The most likely cause of the magnification is the reflective properties of snow and ice, Miller writes, lead author of one of the studies.
When ice melts more sunlight reaches the oceans or the ground, causing even more ice to melt. The opposite is also true: When there is more ice it reflects more solar energy back into space, and cools the Arctic down, which leads to more sea ice forming.
When trees and shrubs start growing farther north as the climate warms, they in turn have their own magnification effect on temperature change, as does melting permafrost.
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