Quantifying global warming from the retreat of glaciers

Records of glacier fluctuations compiled by the World Glacier Monitoring Service can be used to derive an independent estimate of global warming during the last 100 years. Records of different glaciers are made comparable by a two-step scaling procedure: one allowing for differences in glacier geometry, the other for differences in climate sensitivity. The retreat of glaciers during the last 100 years appears to be coherent over the globe. On the basis of modeling of the climate sensitivity of glaciers, the observed glacier retreat can be explained by a linear warming trend of 0.66 kelvin per century.     

Causes of climate change over the past 1000 years

Recent reconstructions of Northern Hemisphere temperatures and climate forcing over the past 1000 years allow the warming of the 20th century to be placed within a historical context and various mechanisms of climate change to be tested. Comparisons of observations with simulations from an energy balance climate model indicate that as much as 41 to 64% of preanthropogenic (pre-1850) decadal-scale temperature variations was due to changes in solar irradiance and volcanism. Removal of the forced response from reconstructed temperature time series yields residuals that show similar variability to those of control runs of coupled models, thereby lending support to the models' value as estimates of low-frequency variability in the climate system. Removal of all forcing except greenhouse gases from the approximately 1000-year time series results in a residual with a very large late-20th-century warming that closely agrees with the response predicted from greenhouse gas forcing. The combination of a unique level of temperature increase in the late 20th century and improved constraints on the role of natural variability provides further evidence that the greenhouse effect has already established itself above the level of natural variability in the climate system. A 21st-century global warming projection far exceeds the natural variability of the past 1000 years and is greater than the best estimate of global temperature change for the last interglacial.     

陕西杨凌近30年来日本樱花花期的演变及其指示意义

为了揭示日本樱花花期演变的特点及其与春温、植物生育期变化的关系,从1979~2006年近30年来,对陕西杨凌日本樱花花期进行了连续观测,统计分析了日本樱花花期序列,花期和春温的关系以及其与小麦生育期的相关关系。结果表明,近30年来,日本樱花花期有随时间推移逐渐提早的趋势,20世纪90年代的平均开花始期、盛期均较80年代提早1 d,进入21世纪以来提早明显加快,其平均开花始期、盛期均较20世纪90年代提早9 d。20世纪80和90年代,日本樱花最早和最晚花期相差21 d,到21世纪10年代,相差仅15~17 d,花期的变动明显趋于稳定。陕西杨凌早春和整个春季的气温均与日本樱花花期呈极显著负相关,日本樱花开花盛期与小麦抽穗期、开花期、乳熟期呈极显著相关,与小麦蜡熟期、成熟期呈显著相关。说明日本樱花花期变化和春温升高密切相关,是全球气候变暖的又一具体表现。根据日本樱花花期能较好预报小麦等农作物生长后期各生育期的变化,可以提早安排小麦授粉杂交、后代选择、后期栽培管理等一系列农事活动,对整个农业生产具有重要作用。     

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Causes of 20th Century Warming

Global air surface temperatures increased by about 0.6 degrees C during the 20th century, but as Zwiers and Weaver discuss in their Perspective, the warming was not continuous. Two distinct periods of warming, from 1910 to 1945 and since 1976, were separated by a period of very gradual cooling. The authors highlight the work by Stott et al., who have performed the most comprehensive simulation of 20th century climate to date. The agreement between observed and simulated temperature variations strongly suggests that forcing from anthropogenic activities, moderated by variations in solar and volcanic forcing, has been the main driver of climate change during the past century.     

A semi-empirical approach to projecting future sea-level rise

A semi-empirical relation is presented that connects global sea-level rise to global mean surface temperature. It is proposed that, for time scales relevant to anthropogenic warming, the rate of sea-level rise is roughly proportional to the magnitude of warming above the temperatures of the pre-Industrial Age. This holds to good approximation for temperature and sea-level changes during the 20th century, with a proportionality constant of 3.4 millimeters/year per degrees C. When applied to future warming scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this relationship results in a projected sea-level rise in 2100 of 0.5 to 1.4 meters above the 1990 level.     

Detection of a human influence on North American climate

Several indices of large-scale patterns of surface temperature variation were used to investigate climate change in North America over the 20th century. The observed variability of these indices was simulated well by a number of climate models. Comparison of index trends in observations and model simulations shows that North American temperature changes from 1950 to 1999 were unlikely to be due to natural climate variation alone. Observed trends over this period are consistent with simulations that include anthropogenic forcing from increasing atmospheric greenhouse gases and sulfate aerosols. However, most of the observed warming from 1900 to 1949 was likely due to natural climate variation.     

External control of 20th century temperature by natural and anthropogenic forcings

A comparison of observations with simulations of a coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model shows that both natural and anthropogenic factors have contributed significantly to 20th century temperature changes. The model successfully simulates global mean and large-scale land temperature variations, indicating that the climate response on these scales is strongly influenced by external factors. More than 80% of observed multidecadal-scale global mean temperature variations and more than 60% of 10- to 50-year land temperature variations are due to changes in external forcings. Anthropogenic global warming under a standard emissions scenario is predicted to continue at a rate similar to that observed in recent decades.     

Retreating glacier fronts on the Antarctic Peninsula over the past half-century

The continued retreat of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula has been widely attributed to recent atmospheric warming, but there is little published work describing changes in glacier margin positions. We present trends in 244 marine glacier fronts on the peninsula and associated islands over the past 61 years. Of these glaciers, 87% have retreated and a clear boundary between mean advance and retreat has migrated progressively southward. The pattern is broadly compatible with retreat driven by atmospheric warming, but the rapidity of the migration suggests that this may not be the sole driver of glacier retreat in this region.     

Geothermal evidence from Canada for a cold period before recent climatic warming

Three deep boreholes in a small area in Quebec, each having two high-accuracy temperature logs separated by 22 years, allow reliable determination of the ground surface temperature history during the past few centuries. The temperature logs show that the recent climatic warming was preceded by a cold period near the end of the 19th century in this area. The presence of such a cold period is also suggested by borehole temperature data from other areas in Canada.     

Planktonic foraminifera of the California Current reflect 20th-century warming

It is currently unclear whether observed pelagic ecosystem responses to ocean warming, such as a mid-1970s change in the eastern North Pacific, depart from typical ocean variability. We report variations in planktonic foraminifera from varved sediments off southern California spanning the past 1400 years. Increasing abundances of tropical/subtropical species throughout the 20th century reflect a warming trend superimposed on decadal-scale fluctuations. Decreasing abundances of temperate/subpolar species in the late 20th century indicate a deep, penetrative warming not observed in previous centuries. These results imply that 20th-century warming, apparently anthropogenic, has already affected lower trophic levels of the California Current.     

Rapid 20th-century increase in coastal upwelling off northwest Africa

Near-shore waters along the northwest African margin are characterized by coastal upwelling and represent one of the world's major upwelling regions. Sea surface temperature (SST) records from Moroccan sediment cores, extending back 2500 years, reveal anomalous and unprecedented cooling during the 20th century, which is consistent with increased upwelling. Upwelling-driven SSTs also vary out of phase with millennial-scale changes in Northern Hemisphere temperature anomalies (NHTAs) and show relatively warm conditions during the Little Ice Age and relatively cool conditions during the Medieval Warm Period. Together, these results suggest that coastal upwelling varies with NHTAs and that upwelling off northwest Africa may continue to intensify as global warming and atmospheric CO2 levels increase.     

山西省朔州市冬季气温变化特征与暖冬的气象成因及对农林业的影响

为了揭示朔州市冬季的气候变化规律,特别是近年冬季的气候变化特点,运用气候倾向率、相关分析等统计方法,根据山西省朔州市6个气象观测站1988-2005年冬季平均气温、平均最高气温、平均最低气温资料,对朔州市近18年来冬季气温变化做了分析。结果表明,自20世纪70年代,朔州市冬季气温总体呈逐年上升趋势,1988年后的18年,朔州市出现15个暖冬年,冬季平均气温变化趋势不太明显,平均最高气温呈下降趋势,平均最低气温呈上升趋势,但与20世纪后30年相比,升温速率明显下降。冬季平均气温、平均最高气温、平均最低气温的最大增温率均出现在1月,1月变暖趋势最为明显。结论认为,这种经常出现的气候异常,有一定的气象成因,对农林业的生产产生了很大的影响,本文对此进行了分析和讨论,并提出了降低暖冬对农林业危害的建议。     

The climate change commitment

Even if atmospheric composition were fixed today, global-mean temperature and sea level rise would continue due to oceanic thermal inertia. These constant-composition (CC) commitments and their uncertainties are quantified. Constant-emissions (CE) commitments are also considered. The CC warming commitment could exceed 1 degrees C. The CE warming commitment is 2 degrees to 6 degrees C by the year 2400. For sea level rise, the CC commitment is 10 centimeters per century (extreme range approximately 1 to 30 centimeters per century) and the CE commitment is 25 centimeters per century (7 to 50 centimeters per century). Avoiding these changes requires, eventually, a reduction in emissions to substantially below present levels. For sea level rise, a substantial long-term commitment may be impossible to avoid.     

Simulation of early 20th century global warming

The observed global warming of the past century occurred primarily in two distinct 20-year periods, from 1925 to 1944 and from 1978 to the present. Although the latter warming is often attributed to a human-induced increase of greenhouse gases, causes of the earlier warming are less clear because this period precedes the time of strongest increases in human-induced greenhouse gas (radiative) forcing. Results from a set of six integrations of a coupled ocean-atmosphere climate model suggest that the warming of the early 20th century could have resulted from a combination of human-induced radiative forcing and an unusually large realization of internal multidecadal variability of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system. This conclusion is dependent on the model's climate sensitivity, internal variability, and the specification of the time-varying human-induced radiative forcing.     

Multidecadal changes in the vertical temperature structure of the tropical troposphere

Trends in global lower tropospheric temperature derived from satellite observations since 1979 show less warming than trends based on surface meteorological observations. Independent radiosonde observations of surface and tropospheric temperatures confirm that, since 1979, there has been greater warming at the surface than aloft in the tropics. Associated lapse-rate changes show a decrease in the static stability of the atmosphere, which exceeds unforced static stability variations in climate simulations with state-of-the-art coupled ocean-atmosphere models. The differential temperature trends and lapse-rate changes seen during the satellite era are not sustained back to 1960.     

Climate impact of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide

The global temperature rose by 0.2 degrees C between the middle 1960's and 1980, yielding a warming of 0.4 degrees C in the past century. This temperature increase is consistent with the calculated greenhouse effect due to measured increases of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Variations of volcanic aerosols and possibly solar luminosity appear to be primary causes of observed fluctuations about the mean trend of increasing temperature. It is shown that the anthropogenic carbon dioxide warming should emerge from the noise level of natural climate variability by the end of the century, and there is a high probability of warming in the 1980's. Potential effects on climate in the 21st century include the creation of drought-prone regions in North America and central Asia as part of a shifting of climatic zones, erosion of the West Antarctic ice sheet with a consequent worldwide rise in sea level, and opening of the fabled Northwest Passage.     

近48年安徽省宿州市气候变化特征分析

根据1961～2008年宿州市气温和降水资料,运用一元回归、相关分析等数理统计方法,对近48年来安徽省宿州市气候变化进行分析。结果表明：近48年来宿州市年平均气温呈上升趋势,各季中冬季增温最明显,而夏季却出现降温趋势;增温最显著的是20世纪90年代以后。年平均降水量呈增加趋势,增量最大出现在20世纪90年代;夏、冬季平均降水量呈增加趋势,其中夏季增加对年均降水量增加的贡献最大,而春、秋季平均降水量呈减少趋势。     

Marked post-18th century environmental change in high-arctic ecosystems

Paleolimnological data from three high-arctic ponds on Cape Herschel, Ellesmere Island, Canada, show that diatom assemblages were relatively stable over the last few millennia but then experienced unparalleled changes beginning in the 19th century. The environmental factors causing these assemblage shifts may be related to recent climatic warming. Regardless of the cause, the biota of these isolated and seemingly pristine ponds have changed dramatically in the recent past and any hopes of cataloging natural assemblages may already be fruitless.     

全球变暖对四川气候旅游资源的影响探析

利用四川省139个站点1961～2004年月平均气温和降水资料,并选取九寨沟、海螺沟、峨眉山、蜀南竹海4个旅游景区的气象站点,统计分析了其在全球变暖的背景下的气候变化趋势,进而研究了气候变暖对四川旅游气候资源的影响。结果表明,20世纪90年代以来,与全球变暖相对应,四川地区年均气温呈上升趋势、年降水量呈下降趋势,6个景点的气候变化趋势也基本有类似的响应,这对于以水为景、以气为景的旅游景区(如九寨)的可持续发展提出了挑战。但是冬暖气候在导致降水量减少、冰川面积减少、积雪量减少、雪线上升的同时,也提供了开展冬季旅游、重构现有旅游格局、挖掘新的旅游资源、拓展新的特色旅游空间的机遇。在此基础上,研究提出了主动适应全球变暖的气候响应,大力开展冬季旅游的建议。     

The evolution of climate over the last millennium

Knowledge of past climate variability is crucial for understanding and modeling current and future climate trends. This article reviews present knowledge of changes in temperatures and two major circulation features-El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)-over much of the last 1000 years, mainly on the basis of high-resolution paleoclimate records. Average temperatures during the last three decades were likely the warmest of the last millennium, about 0.2 degrees C warmer than during warm periods in the 11th and 12th centuries. The 20th century experienced the strongest warming trend of the millennium (about 0.6 degrees C per century). Some recent changes in ENSO may have been unique since 1800, whereas the recent trend to more positive NAO values may have occurred several times since 1500. Uncertainties will only be reduced through more extensive spatial sampling of diverse proxy climatic records.