NASA’s Earth Observatory website is an interesting site that uses satellite imag
ID: 296805 • Letter: N
Question
NASA’s Earth Observatory website is an interesting site that uses satellite imagery to examine natural disasters, air pollution, and climate change. Please go to http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/decadaltemp.php to observe changes in global temperature from the 1880’s to 2009. Make sure that you click the play button on the right to view the changes over time. Where has the majority of warming occurred since the 1880’s? What are the potential causes of warming to these particular areas, and what consequences of warming may be experienced?
Explanation / Answer
> The world is getting warmer. NASA has just announced that the period from January 2000 through December 2009 has been the hottest decade since record-keeping began in 1880. Furthermore, 2009 was the second-hottest year on record for the planet as a whole and in the southern hemisphere, the hottest.
>Since records began being kept, average temperatures have increased 0.8°C, or just under halfway to the 2°C critical threshold beyond which sea level rise, ocean acidification, polar and glacial ice melt and a number of factors begin creating a climate far different than the one which humanity has known since the dawn of civilization.
> The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for June 2009 was the second warmest on record, behind 2005, 1.12 degrees F (0.62 degree C) above the 20th century average of 59.9 degrees F (15.5 degrees C).In total, average global temperatures have increased by about 0.8°C (1.4°F) since 1880.
The global ocean surface temperature for June 2009 was the warmest on record, 1.06 degrees F (0.59 degree C) above the 20th century average of 61.5 degrees F (16.4 degrees C).Generally, warming is greater over land than over the oceans because water is slower to absorb and release heat (thermal inertia). Warming may also differ substantially within specific land masses and ocean basins.
Each hemisphere broke its June record for warmest ocean surface temperature. In the Northern Hemisphere, the warm anomaly of 1.17 degrees F (0.65 degree C) surpassed the previous record of 1.12 degrees F (0.62 degree C), set in 2005. The Southern Hemisphere’s increase of 0.99 degree F (0.55 degree C) exceeded the old record of 0.92 degree F (0.51 degree C), set in 1998.
The global land surface temperature for June 2009 was 1.26 degrees F (0.70 degree C) above the 20th century average of 55.9 degrees F (13.3 degrees C), and ranked as the sixth-warmest June on record.
> Terrestrial warmth was most notable in Africa. Considerable warmth also occurred in Siberia and in the lands around the Black and Mediterranean Seas.
> Causes are -
There's substantial year-to-year variability of global temperature caused by the tropical El Niño-La Niña cycle.
Climate scientists agree that rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases trap incoming heat near the surface of the Earth and are the key factors causing the rise in temperatures since 1880.
Three others key factors -- including changes in the sun’s irradiance, oscillations of sea surface temperature in the tropics, and changes in aerosol levels -- can also cause slight increases or decreases in the planet's temperature.
Fossil fuel use also increased in the post-War era (5 percent per year), boosting greenhouse gases.
Major consequence of warming can be-
One of the most immediate and obvious effects of global warming is the increase in temperatures around the world. The average global temperature has increased by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius) over the past 100 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Collapse of glacier or glacier melting.
Sea level rise.
Extinction of species because of rising temperature of ocean and land surface as well.
Desertification, skin cancer and many skin related deseases and eye blindness. Etc.
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