Monthly Archives: November 2008
Real Climate Misunderstanding Of Climate Models
Real Climate has introduced a weblog titled FAQ on climate models. There are quite a few issues that can be raised with their answers, but I will focus on just one here. It is their answer to the question “What … Continue reading
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Filed under Climate Models
Wind Changes over Time and Space as a Climate Metric to Diagnose Temperature Trends
In Pielke et al. 2001: Analysis of 200 mbar zonal wind for the period 1958-1997. J. Geophys. Res., 106, D21, 27287-27290, we demonstrated that temporal and spatial trends in upper tropospheric winds can be used to diagnosis the trends in … Continue reading
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Filed under Climate Change Metrics
Is Global Warming Spatially Complex?
Originally Posted on September 25, 2005. The short answer is Yes. As discussed in Heat storage within the Earth system, the appropriate climate metric to assess global warming is ocean heat content in Joules. As was shown in that 2003 … Continue reading
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Is There a Human Effect on the Climate System?
Originally Posted on August 1, 2005. As discussed in depth in the NRC (2005) report, the human influences on the climate system are diverse and include, in addition to the radiative effect of the well-mixed greenhouse gases such as carbon … Continue reading
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Filed under Climate Change Forcings & Feedbacks
Why is Land Use/Land Cover Change a First-Order Climate Forcing?
Originally posted on August 5, 2005. As recognized by the National Research Council in 2005, land-use/land-cover change is a first-order climate forcing. However, its role as a regional and global climate influence is not widely recognized, except as it effects … Continue reading
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Is CO2 a Pollutant?
Originally posted on August 9, 2005. A recent news article illustrates a popular understanding of carbon dioxide as a pollutant. Referring to carbon permit trading it reports: “These brokers don’t trade stocks or bonds or gold or oil. What they … Continue reading
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Linear Climate Trends or Sudden Transitions of Climate – Which is More Likely?
Originally posted on August 19, 2005. A recent paper in Geophysical Research Letters by K. Zickfeld and colleagues (“Is the Indian summer monsoon stable against global change?” provides an example of investigating multiple climate forcings. According to their study, sulfur … Continue reading
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Filed under Climate Change Forcings & Feedbacks
What is a “Teleconnection”? Why are Teleconnections Important in Climate Science?
Originally posted on August 25, 2005. Teleconnections are defined by the American Meteorological Society as: “1. A linkage between weather changes occurring in widely separated regions of the globe. 2. A significant positive or negative correlation in the fluctuations of … Continue reading
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Filed under Climate Change Forcings & Feedbacks
What is Climate? Why Does it Matter How We Define Climate?
Originally Posted on July 11, 2005. The title of this weblog is “Climate Science,” so the first thing we need to do is define “climate.” For many, the term refers to long-term weather statistics. However, on this blog we are … Continue reading
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Filed under Definition of Climate
Are Multi-decadal Climate Forecasts Skillful?
Originally posted on July 22, 2005. In one of our July 11, 2005 posts, climate was defined so that climate forecasts are forecasts of the future state of the atmosphere, oceans, land, and continental glaciers, as defined using physical, chemical, … Continue reading
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Filed under Climate Models
