Union of Concerned Scientists
JANUARY 7, 2025
The year 2023 was by far the warmest in Earths recorded history, and perhaps in the past 100,000 years , shattering the previous record set in 2016 by 0.27C (0.49F). Albedo is the total reflection of incoming solar radiation by Earth. But why were 2023 and 2024 so warm? What is albedo?
Real Climate
MARCH 20, 2025
As you can see though, the size of the residual for 2023 was comparable to 2016 and 1998 (years that started with large El Nio events), and 2024 had the highest residual in decades despite the recent El Nio only being a moderate event. Indeed, we estimate that the contribution from the solar cycle has been comparably large.
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Real Climate
JULY 10, 2022
The fact that there is a natural greenhouse effect (that the atmosphere restricts the passage of infra-red (IR) radiation from the Earth’s surface to space) is easily deducible from; i) the mean temperature of the surface (around 15ºC) and, ii) knowing that the planet is normally close to radiative equilibrium. in IPCC TAR).
Real Climate
SEPTEMBER 19, 2021
The radiative forcing from these changes in concentrations can be easily calculated using standard formulas (from Etminan et al, 2016 which supersede the slightly simpler ones from IPCC TAR), as about 2 W/m 2 for the CO 2 change and 0.65 W/m 2 for CH 4. W/m<sup>2</sup> (to about 60% of the CO 2 effect since 1750). References.
Real Climate
OCTOBER 1, 2022
He made some rather strange claims, such as that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) allegedly should have forgotten that the earth is a sphere because “ most absorption of solar radiation takes place over the tropics, while there is excess emission of longwave radiation to space over higher latitudes ”. 679-688, 2016.
Real Climate
AUGUST 9, 2021
Now however, the updates to the historical warming , the use of four datasets instead of one, and of course, the series of record breaking years subsequently (2014, 2015, 2016/2020), the issue of variability in decadal trends is no longer so salient. 1981) which can be seen here. The radiative forcing bar chart now converted to temperature.
Circle of Blue
JANUARY 17, 2022
Caption: The Salar de Atacama salt works in Chile in 2016. Against the backdrop of Chile’s Atacama Desert, the Salar de Atacama Mine radiates with a futuristic blue light—its cerulean pools glow like tessellated computer screens, a stark contrast to the muted landscape that surrounds them. Photo © NASA Johnson /Flickr Creative Commons.
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