State of the climate (2025)

State of the Climate in 2012

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2013

[Global Climate] Climate data rescue and stewardship: filling in the gaps in 21st century needs [in "State of the Climate in 2011"]

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

State of the Climate in 2011

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2012

Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are increasing

Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences, 2012

Global Climate

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2021

For reasons other than the climate, 2020 was an extraordinary year. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost all of us, changing the lives of many people around the globe. While the economic disruption associated with COVID-19 led to modest estimated reductions of 6-7% (e.g., le Quere et al. 2020; Friedlingstein et al. 2020; BP Statistical Review of the World Energy 2021) in global anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions, atmospheric CO 2 levels continued to grow rapidly-a reminder of its very long residence time in the atmosphere and the challenge of reducing atmospheric CO 2. As we show in this chapter, the climate has continued to respond to the resulting warming from these increases in CO 2 and other greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide, which also experienced record increases in 2020. The year 2020 was one of the three warmest since records began in the mid-to-late 1800s, with global surface temperatures around 0.6°C above the 1981-2010 average, despite the El Niño-Southern Oscillation progressing from neutral to La Niña conditions by August (see section 4b). Lower tropospheric temperatures matched those from 2016, the previous warmest year. Meanwhile, stratospheric temperatures continued to cool as a result of anthropogenic CO 2 increases. Along with the above-average surface temperatures, an unprecedented (since instrumental records began) geographic spread of heat waves and warm spells occurred. Antarctica observed its highest temperature on record (18.3°C) at Esperanza in February. In August, Death Valley, California, reported the highest temperature observed anywhere on Earth since 1931 (preliminary value of 54.4°C). Consequently, many permafrost measurement sites experienced their highest temperatures on record; Northern Hemisphere (NH) snow cover was below the 51-year average and the fourthleast extensive on record. Glaciers in alpine regions experienced their 33rd consecutive year of negative mass balance and 12th year of average losses of more than 500 mm depth. On average, NH lakes froze over 3 days later and thawed 5.5 days earlier than the 1981-2010 average during the 2019/20 winter, which was the third-shortest ice cover season since 1979/80. The atmosphere responded to higher temperatures accordingly by holding more water. Total column water vapor was high relative to the 1981-2010 average, ranging from 0.75 to 1.06 mm over ocean and 0.58 to 0.94 mm over land, but did not reach the record values of 2016. At the surface, specific humidity over oceans was at record high levels (0.23 to 0.41 g kg −1) and was well above average over land (0.14 to 0.36 g kg −1). Conversely, relative humidity was well below average over land (-1.28 to-0.68 %rh), continuing the long-term declining trend. Precipitation increased compared to 2019, driven largely by land values, but there were few exceptional extreme precipitation events, coupled with below-average cloudiness over most of the land. More lakes showed positive water level anomalies than 2019, and in East Africa, Lake Victoria's level rose by over a meter due to a wet long-rains season. Soil moisture and terrestrial water storage showed stronger regional variations than in previous years, with East Africa and India being especially moist. Global drought area continued to increase for most of the year, reaching a peak in October, with the third-highest global land area experiencing extreme drought according to the Palmer Drought

Ozone Depletion, Greenhouse Gases and Climate Change

Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics, 1991

Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are still increasing

Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences, 2010

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Climate impact of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide

1981

Atmospheric CO2 increased from 280 to 300 parts per million in 1880 to 335 to 340 ppm in 1980 (1, 2), mainly due to burning of fossil fuels. Deforestation and changes in biosphere growth may also SCIENCE Greenhouse Effect The effective radiating temperature of the earth, Te, is determined by the need for infrared emission from the planet to balance absorbed solar radiation: 'rrR2(1-A)So = 41TR2cT, The authors are atmospheric physicists at the NASA Institute for Space Studies, Goddard Space Flight Center, New York 10025. D. Johnson contributed to the carbon dioxide research as a participant in the Summer Institute on Planets and Climate at