14 DAY TRIAL // The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released the 2010 State of the Climate report today, and the main conclusion of the new document is that last year was one of the two warmest ever recorded.
The report, released on June 27, has already been reviewed by peers, who attested that the data and conclusions contained within are correct. NOAA coordinated with the American Meteorological Society (AMS) for this work.
A number of 368 scientists in 45 countries put this report together, which represents a new set of incontestable evidence that global warming is happening, and that climate change is real.
The detailed view it provides of the world covers every single continent, and includes yearly updates on several indicators of global climate, severe or notable climate events that took place in 2010, as well as a series of other information that are of use to climate scientists.
For 2010, experts tracked 41 climate indicators, which is 4 more than in 2009. The team behind the report believes that this provided them with more accurate, differentiated data to use in the report.
Some of the most important indicators used included the temperature of the lower and upper atmosphere, the amount, spread and level of precipitation, and the amounts of greenhouse gases emitted, as well as data on humidity, cloud cover, ocean temperature and salinity, sea ice and glaciers.
For each of these indicators, experts used multiple independent datasets to extract and centralize thousands of measurements. This helps develop overall trends, while at the same time removing the risk that some of the data are just statistical flukes.
“We’re continuing to closely track these indicators because it is quite clear that the climate of the past cannot be assumed to represent the climate of the future,” explains researcher Thomas R. Karl, LHD.
“These indicators are vital for understanding and making reliable projections of future climate,” adds the official, who holds an appointment as the director of the NOAA National Climatic Data Center.
“Three major independent datasets show 2010 as one of the two warmest years since official record-keeping began in the late 19th century. Annual average temperatures in the Arctic continued to rise at about twice the rate of the lower latitudes,” a NOAA press release says.
Full details of the report are available online for the general public at this website.