Browse by Month
How the Climate System Works
- Department:July 10, 2012
In 2011, Earth’s atmosphere was cooler and drier than it had been the previous year, but it was more humid than the long-term average.
- Department:July 10, 2012
Except for some La Niña-cooled regions of the tropical Pacific and a few other cool spots, the upper ocean held more heat than average in 2011 in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Southern Oceans.
- Department:July 10, 2012
In early 2011, stratospheric temperatures rose over the tropics due to La Nina while temperatures over the poles fell below the long-term average.
- Department:June 19, 2012
In late-April 2011, an unusual, post-winter Nor’easter brought much-needed rain the Northeast United States.
- Department:April 12, 2012
Although solar flares can bombard Earth’s outermost atmosphere with tremendous amounts of energy, most of that energy is reflected back into space by the Earth’s magnetic field or radiated back to space as heat by the thermosphere.
- Department:February 15, 2012
James Roger Fleming presents a historical perspective on how our understanding of Earth's climate system developed through innovations and discoveries by pioneering scientists in the 1800s and 1900s who asked and answered fundamental questions about the causes and effects of global climate change.
- Department:February 15, 2012
Although they are related, meteorology and climatology have important differences, particularly in how scientists develop and use weather and climate models. What makes climatologists think they can project climate scenarios decades into the future when meteorologists cannot accurately predict weather more than two weeks in advance? This presentation by Wayne Higgins of NOAA's Climate Prediction Center clarifies the relationships and differences between weather and climate, as well as the differences between natural climate variability and human-induced climate change.
- Department:February 15, 2012
Humans currently release about 70 million tons of carbon dioxide every day into the atmosphere and about 20 million tons is being absorbed regularly by the oceans, causing the pH to drop. Chris Sabine describes current and projected future impacts of this acidification on marine ecology.
- Department:January 20, 2012
This year’s Arctic Report Card emphasizes that climate change is more prominent in the Arctic than at lower latitudes.
- Department:January 20, 2012
Jackie Richter-Menge describes the "Arctic amplification" phenomenon: how the loss of Arctic sea ice leads to further warming.