EarthSky published a news article this week on the recent new record in monthly average carbon dioxide level recently reached. For the first time since modern records were kept, the global monthly average carbon dioxide level was over 400 parts per million. Compared to both modern measurements and derived values from ice core data, this is a new high in atmospheric carbon dioxide values. As I have pointed out in previous blog postings, based on proxy data, this is the highest level that CO2 has reached in at least the last 800,000 years.
The ice core data that the right-hand graph is based on is taken from cores of ice drilled out of glaciers at high elevations or latitudes that may not exist in the future, according to Smithsonian magazine (link). Scientists are now drilling extra cores to preserve this information for future studies before the ice is no longer available as glaciers continue to melt under warmer temperatures.
Deke Arndt, the Climate Monitoring Branch Chief at the National Climatic Data Center shared a graph which shows the current status of global temperature on my Facebook feed today. The graph (shown below) shows that if the temperature anomalies seen so far this year continue, the globe will reach a new record high temperature in 2015 (red star) after two decades of very slowly rising temperatures. The high temperature may be due in part to the presence of the current El Nino, which is associated with warmer than normal water in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, and may also be related to unusually warm water in the Atlantic and northern Pacific Oceans which is not connected to El Nino.
