ABSTRACT
A frozen wasteland of endless winter does not sound very susceptible to change. Despite this common description of Arctic landscapes, northern North America is quite vulnerable and can change dramatically. Climate change, whether natural or human-caused, is imminent. Anticipating the direction and magnitude of change requires knowledge of natural climatic fluctuations as well as the impacts of human activity. Of all the recent climate change issues, the potential for global warming due to enhanced greenhouse gases has received the most attention. The challenge in understanding regional response to climate change is to downscale the large climatic patterns simulated in the General circulation models to spatial and temporal resolutions that are meaningful. It is uncertain how the marine/Arctic air mass boundary will respond to climate change. If Arctic and subarctic temperature inversions become less frequent, the associated high atmospheric pressure should diminish.
