A wave of cold Arctic air gripped much of North America, Europe, and northern portions of Asia through the month of December 2009.
At the United Nations Climate Change Conference, Dr. Alexander E. “Sandy” MacDonald, of NOAA, used Science on a Sphere® to illustrate how climate change will transform the planet if humans do not reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
Improved computer models help scientists understand Earth’s ocean.
Carbon dioxide is everywhere: in the air, rising from cracks in the ocean floor, and in your soda can. Now it's showing up in the news! Find out why carbon dioxide is such a hot topic, and why it's going to be around for a long, long time.
The Sun's average brightness varies over time, and the changes can affect global surface temperature. But long-term changes over the period of human-caused global warming are minimal.
The Pacific-North American teleconnection pattern influences regional weather by affecting the strength and location of the East Asian jet stream, and subsequently, the weather it delivers to North America.
The Southern Oscillation Index tracks differences in air pressure between the eastern and western sides of the tropical Pacific.
The amount of sea ice that survives the Arctic summer has declined by 13 percent per decade since the start of the 43-year satellite record.
Global average sea level has risen 8-9 inches since 1880, and the rate is accelerating thanks to glacier and ice sheet melt.
In the past 60 years, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased 100 times faster than it did during the end of the last ice age.