Climate science
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Here is a new animated graphic which shows how the global carbon dioxide level is changing at the same time that emissions and volcanism are changing. As you watch the time change, you can see the CO2 level creep up, especially in response to emissions. The impacts of El Niño and La Niña are also…
Posted in: Climate science -
We are winding down our look at the Georgia Climate Project’s Roadmap of 40 questions that need to be addressed in future research about how Georgia’s changing climate will affect agriculture, ecology, water, transportation, and other parts of society. This week’s question addresses the need for appropriate measurements and associated data sets that scientists can…
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I’ve frequently been asked how we know that human activity is responsible for a warming earth. Of course there are natural factors that are influencing the climate, such as sunspots (on time scales up to a decade), orbital variations around the sun (on time scales of 10,000 to 100,000 years), and volcanic eruptions (effects usually…
Posted in: Climate science -
After a few weeks’ hiatus, here is the latest question from the Georgia Climate Project. This week’s question is on how urban areas are affecting local weather and climate. You probably have already heard of the urban heat island and how it makes cities warmer, but you might not know that cities also increase rainfall…
Posted in: Climate science -
If you’ve ever wondered how climate models work and why climatologists use them to look at the future climate, you might be interested in this long but excellent description of climate models and how they are used. There is a lot of excellent detail in this presentation at https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-how-do-climate-models-work.
Posted in: Climate science -
Earlier this month, Forbes.com published a simple and clearly written article describing what global warming is and how it works. I am not sure I would characterize it as the simplest ever, but it is still a good explanation of how carbon dioxide and other gases are affecting the temperature of the earth as a…
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Even though there is no snow in the forecast for most of the Southeast at the moment, you might enjoy this. The Washington Post has a nice video describing how snowflakes get their shape. You can read more and view it at https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2018/12/26/how-snowflake-gets-its-shape/?utm_term=.21707cff1bd4&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1.
Posted in: Climate science