Recent Arctic warming vertical structure contested

Abstract

The vertical structure of the recent Arctic warming contains information about the processes governing Arctic climate trends. Graversen et al. argue, on the basis of ERA-40 reanalysis data, that a distinct maximum in 1979-2001 warm-season (April-October) Arctic temperature trends appears around 3 km above ground. Here we show that this is due to the heterogeneous nature of the data source, which incorporates information from satellites and radiosondes. Radiosonde data alone suggest the warming was strongest near ground.