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Global Warming: we’re on thin ice!. Compton Tucker NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center & Climate Change Science Program Office. Evidence of global warming Denial of global warming Convergence of evidence. Measured Surface Temperature the past 150 years.
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Global Warming: we’re on thin ice! Compton Tucker NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center & Climate Change Science Program Office • Evidence of global warming • Denial of global warming • Convergence of evidence
Measured Surface Temperature the past 150 years 5 warmest years: 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
Warming greatest at high latitudes Amplification of warming due to decrease of albedo (melting of snow and ice)
Mann, Bradley, & Hughes (1998):The “hockey stick” surface temperature
Tree Ring Temperature Reconstructions ~40% tree ring variation is due to temperature Best tree ring chronology is bristlecone pine series from US west that grows >3,000 m & extends >4,000 years Much of the controversy over surface temperature reconstructions has been associated with tree ring proxy temperature
Some ring-width series Cook, 1989 Four red spruce ring-width series from the same stand – different trends related to competition and disturbance.
Proxy Surface Temperaturesfrom corals, sediments, and ice cores using 18O/16O • d18O = (18O/16O)sample - (18O/16O)SMOW x 103 ‰ (18O/16O)SMOW • SMOW = Standard Mean Ocean Water The vapor pressure of H216O is > than that of H218O; converselyH218O passes into the liquid state more readily. Because condensation is the result of cooling, the greater the fall in temperature the lower the 18O concentration in H2O will be. Isotope concentration can thus be considered a function of temperature. 18O: 0.20% 17O: 0.04% 16O: 99.76%
McIntyre and McKitrick 2003a reanalysis with a subset of Mann et al. 1998’s data 15th century the warmest time in the past 1000 to 2000 years? Same result as Mann et al. 1998 Same result as Mann et al. 1998 when 5 PCs are used for 15th century
Arctic Sea Ice Trends 2005 summer minima 1979 summer minima
Warmer Earth Greener NorthArctic Sea Ice Extent 1979 to 1999 Claire Parkinson et al. 2002
Holgate Glacier July 24, 1909 Holgate Glacier August 13, 2004
Sea Level Rise from thermal expansion & input of water from melting glaciers 20 cm (7 inches) in a century
Bore Hole Locationsdifferent physics (thermal diffusivity) & 10s of years time steps
Bore Hole Temp. Reconstructions ~500 years
Bore Hole Data for Eastern & Western North America (Huang & Pollack)
Bore Hole Cumulative Temperature Figure 6 from pollack and huang p. 365
Equilibrium Climate from Ice Core Data • Estimate climate forcing (W/m2) from atmospheric composition changes • Regress Temperature anomalies against climate forcing J. Hansen
Equilibrium Climate from Ice Core Data • Estimate climate forcing (W/m2) from atmospheric composition changes • Regress Temperature anomalies against climate forcing J. Hansen
Atmospheric CO2 since 1740 Different dCO2/dtime slopes reflect techno-economic conditions
Climate Forcing: expressed as a change in radiative heating (W/m2) at surface for a given change in trace gas composition or other change external to the climate system
Where the rubber hits the road Surface melt on Greenland ice sheet descending into moulin, a vertical shaft carrying the water to base of ice sheet. Source: Roger Braithwaite
12 mi http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a002400/a002421/index.html 20 km January 31, 2002
12 mi http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a002400/a002421/index.html 20 km March 7, 2002
Gravity Recovery & Climate Experiment 500 km orbit 220 km separation Distance accuracy 0.001 mm