Global temp 2012
Posted in Earth Observation

2012 in Top Ten Warmest Years in History. Alarming Trend continues

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by Dan Mantel - KnowledgeOrb Contributor
Global temp 2012
Temperature in 2012 compared to the 1981-2010 average. Credit: NOAA Climate.gov, based on NCDC data.

According to a report released by NOAA 2012 global surface temperature was among the 10 warmest ever recorded. This is alarming as there is no sign of the trend stopping, or better yet reversing. CO2 levels, which are also alarmingly high, are part of the now almost undisputed man-made cause of this change to our planet. Major greenhouse gas concentrations, including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, continued to rise during 2012. Following a slight decline in man-made emissions associated with the global economic downturn, global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production reached a record high.

 

While we search for worlds that are in the habitable zone which are capable of temperatures friendly to life, our own planet is warming. We live on the only known planet capable of supporting life and we need to take better care of it. Of all the planets in our solar system, only Earth has a surface temperature that is uniquely friendly to life. Everything from sea ice concentrations, to plant productivity on land and in the oceans, to the strength of tropical cyclones are influenced by Earth’s surface temperature.

Conditions in 2012

Over land and ocean combined, 2012 was between 0.14° and 0.17° Celsius  (0.25°and 0.31° Fahrenheit) above the 1981–2010 average, depending on the analysis. The globally averaged annual temperature over land was 0.24°–0.29°C (0.43°-0.52°F) above average. And averaged globally, the 2012 ocean temperature was 0.10°–0.14°C (0.18°-0.25°F) above average.

Global Temperature 1880 - 2012
Earth’s average annual surface temperature is higher today than it was when record keeping began more than a century ago. The red line shows how far above or below the 1981–2010 average (dashed line at zero) the combined land and ocean temperature has been each year since 1880. The data shown are from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, one of several temperature analyses included in the State of the Climate in 2012, all of which show a similar warming trend. Graph adapted from Figure 2.1, in BAMS State of the Climate in 2012.

In the Arctic the last 50 years were nearly free of summer ice. the region experiencing unprecedented change breaking several records. Sea ice shrank to its smallest “summer minimum” extent since satellite records began 34 years ago. In addition, more than 97 percent of the Greenland ice sheet showed some form of melt during the summer, four times greater than the 1981–2010 average melt extent.

Some of the effects we see include the intensifying of global rainfall, rise in global sea levels, changes in northern seasons, and even a future reduction in the workforce. Al Gore made a film called “An Inconvenient Truth” which outlines some of the issues including a direct correlation with CO2 levels and the rise in Earth’s temperature. If you have not seen this documentary it is a real eye opener.

The 2012 State of the Climate report is peer-reviewed and published annually as a special supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. This year marks the 23rd edition of the report, which is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides to government, the business sector, academia, and the public to support informed decision-making. The full report can be viewed online.

Dan Mantel - KnowledgeOrb Contributor

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August 5, 2013: Something big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun's vast magnetic field is about to flip. "It looks like we're no more than 3 to 4 months away from a complete field reversal," says solar physicist Todd Hoeksema of Stanford University. "This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system." Field Flip (splash) A new ScienceCast video anticipates the reversal of the sun's global magnetic field. Play it The sun's magnetic field changes polarity approximately every 11 years. It happens at the peak of each solar cycle as the sun's inner magnetic dynamo re-organizes itself. The coming reversal will mark the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24. Half of 'Solar Max' will be behind us, with half yet to come. Hoeksema is the director of Stanford's Wilcox Solar Observatory, one of the few observatories in the world that monitor the sun's polar magnetic fields. The poles are a herald of change. Just as Earth scientists watch our planet's polar regions for signs of climate change, solar physicists do the same thing for the sun. Magnetograms at Wilcox have been tracking the sun's polar magnetism since 1976, and they have recorded three grand reversals—with a fourth in the offing. Field Flip (WSO, 200px) Astronomers at the Wilcox Solar Observatory (WSO) monitor the sun's global magnetic field on a daily basis. WSO home page Solar physicist Phil Scherrer, also at Stanford, describes what happens: "The sun's polar magnetic fields weaken, go to zero, and then emerge again with the opposite polarity. This is a regular part of the solar cycle." A reversal of the sun's magnetic field is, literally, a big event. The domain of the sun's magnetic influence (also known as the "heliosphere") extends billions of kilometers beyond Pluto. Changes to the field's polarity ripple all the way out to the Voyager probes, on the doorstep of interstellar space. When solar physicists talk about solar field reversals, their conversation often centers on the "current sheet." The current sheet is a sprawling surface jutting outward from the sun's equator where the sun's slowly-rotating magnetic field induces an electrical current. The current itself is small, only one ten-billionth of an amp per square meter (0.0000000001 amps/m2), but there’s a lot of it: the amperage flows through a region 10,000 km thick and billions of kilometers wide. Electrically speaking, the entire heliosphere is organized around this enormous sheet. During field reversals, the current sheet becomes very wavy. Scherrer likens the undulations to the seams on a baseball. As Earth orbits the sun, we dip in and out of the current sheet. Transitions from one side to another can stir up stormy space weather around our planet. Field Flip (current sheet, 200px) An artist's concept of the heliospheric current sheet, which becomes more wavy when the sun's magnetic field flips. More Cosmic rays are also affected. These are high-energy particles accelerated to nearly light speed by supernova explosions and other violent events in the galaxy. Cosmic rays are a danger to astronauts and space probes, and some researchers say they might affect the cloudiness and climate of Earth. The current sheet acts as a barrier to cosmic rays, deflecting them as they attempt to penetrate the inner solar system. A wavy, crinkly sheet acts as a better shield against these energetic particles from deep space. As the field reversal approaches, data from Wilcox show that the sun's two hemispheres are out of synch. "The sun's north pole has already changed sign, while the south pole is racing to catch up," says Scherrer. "Soon, however, both poles will be reversed, and the second half of Solar Max will be underway."

Magnetic Poles of Sun about to flip, Solar Max Near

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