2006-05-31

Hurricane Frequency & Strength

MIT, Penn State
Lead authors: Kerry A. Emanuel, Michael E. Mann
Where published: Eos
Human-induced climate change, rather than naturally occurring ocean cycles, may be responsible for the recent increases in the frequency and strength of North Atlantic hurricanes ... North Atlantic sea surface temperature appears to be controlled largely by radiative forcing, which has changed over the past century mainly owing to sulfate aerosol pollution and greenhouse gas increases
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2006-05-26

Warming Underestimated Due to Feedback Loop

Wageningen University, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Lead author: Marten Scheffer
Where published: Geophysical Research Letters
climate change estimates for the next century may have substantially underestimated the potential magnitude of global warming. They say that actual warming due to human fossil fuel emissions may be 15-to-78 percent higher than warming estimates that do not take into account the feedback mechanism involving carbon dioxide and Earth's temperature.
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2006-05-22

Greenhouse Gas Feedback Loops

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (DOE) / UC Berkeley
Lead authors: Margaret Torn, John Harte
Where published: Geophysical Research Letters
global climate change can set-off positive feedback loops in nature which amplify warming and cooling trends ... able to quantify the feedback implied by past increases in natural carbon dioxide and methane gas levels. Their results point to global temperatures at the end of this century that may be significantly higher than current climate models are predicting.
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2006-05-03

China Glaciers Retreating

Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lead author: Dong Guangrong
Glaciers on China's Qinghai-Tibet plateau are shrinking by seven per cent a year because of global warming ... four decades of data from 681 Chinese weather stations, concludes that global warming is to blame.
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Pacific Wind Circulation

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Lead author: Gabriel Vecchi
Where published: Nature
Global warming caused by human activity has begun to dampen an important wind circulation pattern over the Pacific Ocean, and that could alter climate and the marine food chain ... simulations that consider only natural influences fail to produce the observed slowdown
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2006-05-02

Surface/Atmosphere Discrepancy Resolved

U.S. Climate Change Science Program
Lead author: Thomas Karl
there is no longer a discrepancy in the rate of global average temperature increase for the surface compared with higher levels in the atmosphere. This discrepancy had previously been used to challenge the validity of climate models used to detect and attribute the causes of observed climate change ... The evidence continues to support a substantial human impact on global temperature increases.
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