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Posts

May 09, 2013

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2:00 PM | Arctic mission recovers record of surprising warmth
The longest continuous Arctic land sediment core shows that the last time CO2 levels reached current levels, over 2.6 million years ago, North-East Russia was taken was 8°C warmer.

Melles, M., Brigham-Grette, J., Minyuk, P., Nowaczyk, N., Wennrich, V., DeConto, R., Anderson, P., Andreev, A., Coletti, A., Cook, T. & Haltia-Hovi, E. (2012). 2.8 Million Years of Arctic Climate Change from Lake El'gygytgyn, NE Russia, Science, 337 (6092) 315-320. DOI:

Julie Brigham-Grette, Martin Melles, Pavel Minyuk, Andrei Andreev, Pavel Tarasov, Robert DeConto, Sebastian Koenig, Norbert Nowaczyk, Volker Wennrich, Peter Rosén, Eeva Haltia, Tim Cook, Catalina Gebhardt, Carsten Meyer-Jacob, Jeff Snyder, Ulrike Herzsch (2013). Pliocene Warmth, Polar Amplification, and Stepped Pleistocene Cooling Recorded in NE Arctic Russia, Science, Other: 10.1126/science.1233137

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

April 27, 2013

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9:34 AM | The climate scientist whose world spun on through war
Milutin Milanković calculated his way through imprisonment and bombings to show how Earth’s movement helped drive ice ages, revealing how far we’ve strayed from the path we should be following into the next global freeze.

Petrović, A. & Marković, S. (2010). Annus mirabilis and the end of the geocentric causality: Why celebrate the 130th anniversary of Milutin Milanković?, Quaternary International, 214 (1-2) 114-118. DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

April 13, 2013

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11:22 AM | Alternate histories back unique modern warmth claims
Creating and averaging thousands of slightly different historic temperature records shows that Northern hemisphere 21st century temperatures are almost certainly unique in the last 600 years, according to Harvard University’s Martin Tingley.

Tingley, M. & Huybers, P. (2013). Recent temperature extremes at high northern latitudes unprecedented in the past 600 years, Nature, 496 (7444) 201-205. DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

March 16, 2013

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12:48 PM | How cold hearts and ice ages kindled the science of warming
In the 19th century, the newly-divorced Svante Arrhenius threw himself into epic calculations on how CO2 and water vapour could team to control Earth’s temperature, showing the forcing role of CO2 that underlies our understanding of climate change today.

Burgess, E. (1837). "General Remarks on the Temperature of the Terrestrial Globe and the Planetary Spaces; by Baron Fourier." Translation from the French, of Fourier, J. B. J., 1824, "Remarques Générales Sur Les Températures Du Globe Terrestre Et Des Espaces Planétaires., American Journal of Science, 32 1-20. Other: Link

Tyndall, P. (1860). The Bakerian Lecture: On the Absorption and Radiation of Heat by Gases and Vapours, and on the Physical Connexion of Radiation, Absorption, and Conduction., Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 11 100-104. DOI:

Arrhenius, S. (1896). On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground , Philosophical Magazine Series 5, 41 (251) 237-276. DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

February 28, 2013

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7:00 PM | Evidence rethink puts CO2 and ancient warming back in sync
A rise in temperatures that caused the last major global defrost has now been placed in the same 150-year window as an accompanying CO2 increase by Frédéric Parrenin from the French National Centre for Scientific Research and his teammates, rather than happening 800 years before the CO2 change as previously thought.

F. Parrenin, V. Masson-Delmotte, P. Köhler, D. Raynaud, D. Paillard, J. Schwander, C. Barbante, A. Landais, A. Wegner, J. Jouze (2013). Synchronous Change of Atmospheric CO2 and Antarctic Temperature During the Last Deglacial Warming, Science, 339 1060-1063. Other: Link

E. Brook (2012). Leads and Lags at the End of the Last Ice Age, Science, 339 1042-1043. Other: Link

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

February 27, 2013

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2:00 PM | Antarctica's exit glaciers: the drunk drivers of climate change
In geologist Richard Alley's view, we need to plan for a rapid, 2 meter rise.
Scientific Method
General Science

February 21, 2013

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7:00 PM | Cave deposits reveal permafrost concern
Greenhouse gases currently trapped in the frozen soil risk release past a 1.5°C temperature threshold for melting at the permafrost boundary, found in a 500,000 year record collected by Anton Vaks from the University of Oxford, and his colleagues.

A. Vaks, O. S. Gutareva, S. F. M. Breitenbach, E. Avirmed, A. J. Mason, A. L. Thomas, A. V. Osinzev,5 A. M. Kononov, G. M. Henderson (2013). Speleothems Reveal 500,000-Year History of Siberian Permafrost, Science,

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

December 22, 2012

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12:32 PM | 2012’s record events put climate in mind
Wet summers and droughts, deadly storms, Arctic melting and Antarctic freezing. How do climate records in 2012 fit in with the broader picture of climate change?

Villarini, G. & Vecchi, G. (2012). Multi-Season Lead Forecast of the North Atlantic Power Dissipation Index (PDI) and Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE), Journal of Climate, 2147483647. DOI:

Peduzzi, P., Chatenoux, B., Dao, H., De Bono, A., Herold, C., Kossin, J., Mouton, F. & Nordbeck, O. (2012). Global trends in tropical cyclone risk, Nature Climate Change, 2 (4) 289-294. DOI:

Newell, B. & Pitman, A. (2010). The Psychology of Global Warming, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 91 (8) 1003-1014. DOI:

Rahmstorf, S. & Coumou, D. (2011). Increase of extreme events in a warming world, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108 (44) 17905-17909. DOI:

Liu, J., Curry, J., Wang, H., Song, M. & Horton, R. (2012). Impact of declining Arctic sea ice on winter snowfall, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI:

Durack, P., Wijffels, S. & Matear, R. (2012). Ocean Salinities Reveal Strong Global Water Cycle Intensification During 1950 to 2000, Science, 336 (6080) 455-458. DOI:

Schwalm, C., Williams, C., Schaefer, K., Baldocchi, D., Black, T., Goldstein, A., Law, B., Oechel, W., Paw U, K. & Scott, R. & (2012). Reduction in carbon uptake during turn of the century drought in western North America, Nature Geoscience, 5 (8) 551-556. DOI:

Pall, P., Aina, T., Stone, D., Stott, P., Nozawa, T., Hilberts, A., Lohmann, D. & Allen, M. (2011). Anthropogenic greenhouse gas contribution to flood risk in England and Wales in autumn 2000, Nature, 470 (7334) 382-385. DOI:

Min, S., Zhang, X., Zwiers, F. & Hegerl, G. (2011). Human contribution to more-intense precipitation extremes, Nature, 470 (7334) 378-381. DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

December 16, 2012

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7:30 PM | Glacial melt may hit the Oscars with the stunning, somber Chasing Ice
Extreme Ice Survey imagery is expertly brought to life on the silver screen.
Scientific Method
General Science

December 10, 2012

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12:00 PM | Bad news for coastal cities
An international team of scientists, led by Andrew Shepherd of the University of Leeds, has put together the most comprehensive study of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheet loss to date. They also determined how much that loss of ice is affecting global sea levels. The news is not good. The 47 authors used nineteen years of satellite data to come to their conclusions. They found that the loss of the Antarctic and Greenland ice […]
The Stochastic Scientist
Biology | General Science

November 29, 2012

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7:01 PM | Space agencies pinpoint polar ice sheet damage
Greenland & Antarctica lost over 4 trillion tonnes of ice from 1992-2011 - equivalent to 11 mm of sea level rise, the giant Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-Comparison Exercise (IMBIE) has shown by bringing together over 50 years’ worth of satellite data .

Andrew Shepherd, Erik R. Ivins, Geruo A, Valentina R. Barletta, Mike J. Bentley, Srinivas Bettadpur, Kate H. Briggs, David H. Bromwich, René Forsberg, Natalia Galin, Martin Horwath, Stan Jacobs, Ian Joughin, Matt A. King, Jan T. M. Lenaerts, Jilu Li, Antony J. Payne, Hamish Pritchard, Eric Rignot, Helmut Rott, Louise Sandberg Sørensen, Ted A. Scambos, Bernd Scheuchl, Ernst J.O. Schrama, Ben Smith, Aud V. Sundal, Jan H. van Angelen, Willem J. van de Berg, Michiel R. van den Broeke, David G. Vaughan, I (2012). A Reconciled Estimate of Ice-Sheet Mass Balance, Science, Other: 10.1126/science.1228102

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

October 06, 2012

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12:17 PM | Warming weakens deep freeze on Arctic islands
Current Svalbard temperatures are the warmest in 1,800 years say William D’Andrea from Columbia University in New York and his teammates

William J. D’Andrea, David A. Vaillencourt, Nicholas L. Balascio, Al Werner, Steven R. Roof, Michael Retelle and Raymond S. Bradley (2012). Mild Little Ice Age and unprecedented recent warmth in an 1800 year lake sediment record from Svalbard, Geology, DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

September 29, 2012

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11:59 AM | New models still give Arctic summer ice 30 years
September Arctic ice will be ‘nearly gone’ between 2021 and 2043, Muyin Wang from the University of Washington finds, even though only seven of the top climate models simulate the area well.

Muyin Wang and James E. Overland (2012). A sea ice free summer Arctic within 30 years: An update from CMIP5 models, Geophys. Res. Lett., DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

August 25, 2012

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9:47 AM | Finding nature’s part in Arctic ice loss puts spotlight on human role
With Arctic ice heading for reaching its smallest area yet, Jonny Day from the University of Reading, UK and his colleagues have found an ocean circulation pattern could be responsible for up to three-tenths of the ice loss since the 1970s – but that humans remain most responsible.

J J Day, J C Hargreaves, J D Annan and A Abe-Ouchi (2012). Sources of multi-decadal variability in Arctic sea ice extent , Environmental Research Letters, DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

August 16, 2012

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4:25 PM | Sea Level Rise Dramatized in Multimedia “Book App”
Of course you know that polar ice sheets and glaciers are melting, and that as a result, sea level is starting to rise. But once you take in a new multimedia book, Deep Water, by Daniel Grossman, you’ll feel the changes in your gut. You will also have a good sense for how scientists are [...]
Scientific American - Observations
General Science

July 27, 2012

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12:57 AM | A Few Things In the Cryosphere
Some interesting goings-on in the cryosphere these days. In this chart (click the link for an interactive, larger resolution version) from the cryosphere today we can see that we are on the 45th day in a row of daily record lows in sea ice area. Note that this is area which is different from extent. …
A Few Things Ill Considered
Geosciences

September 21, 2011

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6:58 PM | Updates on Greenland's Ice
New work shows how complicated plumbing within Greenland's ice sheets challenges efforts to make sea-level projections.
Dot Earth
Environment

April 29, 2011

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8:41 PM | A Journey Into the Past, Drinks Included
"The Fate of Greenland" revisits journeys to the Arctic financed by Gary Comer, a Midwestern entrepreneur who wanted scientists to gain a profound understanding of climate change.
Green
Environment

August 25, 2010

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1:35 AM | Reflections of a Sound
When you’re spending US$15M to drill a hole, you want to make sure it’s in the right place. In the austral summer of ‘05/’06, it was still a year until bits would start chewing through rock beneath the McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) in the first phase of the ANtarctic DRILLing (ANDRILL) Project. The international science team [...]
Journeys to the Ice
Geosciences
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