JExif MM * ( 1 $ 2 ; i $ \ (FILES) In this file photo taken on November 02, 2017 Sea ice is viewed aboard NASA's research aircraft in the Antarctic Peninsula region, above Antarctica. NASA's Operation IceBridge has been studying how polar ice has evolved over the past nine years and is currently flying a set of nine-hour research flights over West Antarctica to monitor ice loss aboard a retrofitted 1966 Lockheed P-3 aircraft. According to NASA, the current mission targets 'sea ice in the Bellingshausen and Weddell seas and glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula and along the English and Bryan Coasts.' Researchers have used the IceBridge data to observe that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may be in a state of irreversible decline directly contributing to rising sea levels. The National Climate Assessment, a study produced every 4 years by scientists from 13 federal agencies of the U.S. government, released a stark report November 2 stating that global temperature rise over the past 115 years has been primarily caused by 'human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases'. Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFP - The Arctic has experienced its second warmest year since 1900, according to a report published Tuesday, raising fears over low summer sea ice and rising sea levels. The North Pole has been warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet since the 1990s, a phenomenon climatologists call Arctic amplification, and the past six years have been the region's warmest ever. (Photo by MARIO TAMA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP) - ' - 'Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 (Macintosh) 2021:07:01 18:56:38 MARIO TAMA 2017 Getty Images 0221 ( H H Adobe_CM Adobe d l " ? 3 !1AQa"q2B#$Rb34rC%Scs5&DTdE£t6UeuF'Vfv7GWgw 5 !1AQaq"2B#R3$brCScs4%&5DTdEU6teuFVfv'7GWgw ? F;Ay<8Wk# ȨSq0X 4Lфc6ч