NASA is preparing to launch two missions to explore the Arctic following data that showed 2015 to be the warmest year on record.<br /><br /> According to the US space agency, 2016 so far appears to be hot on last year’s heels, prompting sea ice to grow at an exceptionally slow rate.<br /><br /> NASA scientist Walt Meier says the effects could be wide-ranging: “The Arctic has been kind-of like an air conditioner, a cool region that helps keep the planet cooler, and we’re losing the efficiency on that. And as that contrast decreases, the Arctic warms with the lower latitudes.” <br /><br /> “We’re seeing the changes in wind patterns and things like the jet-streams, storm tracks, changing in response to this different balance between the polar regions in the lower latitudes. And that of course has wide-ranging effects throughout the Northern Hemisphere in the United States, Europe, and so-forth.”<br /><br /> The two new NASA missions, called Operation Ice Bridge and Oceans Melting Greenland, will monitor the health of the Arctic
