Climate Change - Human activities

This page presents notes on scientific published articles related to Human activities.

Article: "Tropical Origins for Recent North Atlantic Climate Change." North Atlantic climate change since 1950 is linked to warming of tropical sea surface temperatures. Oceans may be responding to solar forcing, as shown in data since 1000 AD. Oceans may also be responding to changes in atmosphere since 1950 due to human activities. Source: Science, Volume 292, Number 5514. Date: 2001 April 6

Article: "Anthropogenic Warming of Earth's Climate System." Increased ocean heat since 1950 may largely be due to increase in anthropogenic gases in atmosphere. The dominant change in heat content of the Earth's climate system in the past fifty years is associated with the warming of the world ocean. Source: Science, Volume 292, Number 5515. Date: 2001 April 13

Article: "Detection of Anthropogenic Climate Change in the World's Oceans." The Parallel Climate Model has closely replicated observances of increases in heat content of the world's oceans. Observed ocean heat changes consistent with those predicted by the model for anthropogenic forcing. Source: Science, Volume 292, Number 5515. Date: 2001 April 13

Article: "Weakening of tropical Pacific atmospheric circulation due to anthropogenic forcing." Weakened surface winds have altered thermal structure and circulation of tropical Pacific Ocean. Climate models indicate cause is man-made. Source: Nature, Volume 441, Number 7089. Date: 2006 May 4

Article: "The importance of the diurnal and annual cycle of air traffic for contrail radiative forcing." Air traffic condensation trails (contrails) have a small net atmospheric warming effect, trapping more outgoing longwave radiation than reflecting incoming solar radiation. Nighttime flights for a site in southeast England account for 25 percent of daily air traffic, but contribute 60-80 percent of contrail forcing. Winter (December to February) flights are 22 percent of traffic, but contribute 50 percent to annual mean contrail forcing. Shifting air traffic from night to day would minimize climate effect of contrails. Source: Nature, Volume 441, Number 7095. Date: 2006 June 15

Article: "Contribution of anthropogenic and natural sources to atmospheric methane variability." Atmospheric concentration of methane has nearly tripled since pre-industrial times. Growth rate declined since early 1990s, constant since 1999. Decrease in atmospheric methane growth during 1990s caused by decline in anthropogenic emissions. Since 1999, anthropogenic emissions rising again, though wetlands coincidentally decreasing. Source: Nature, Volume 443, Number 7110. Date: 2006 September 28

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Last updated: 2010 Apr 8.
Global Warming and Climate Change
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