Bibliographic Citation
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| Title | Is recent climate change across the United States related to rising levels of anthropogenic greenhouse gases |
| Creator/Author | Plantico, M.S. ; Karl, T.R. (NOAA, Asheville, NC (USA)) ; Kukla, G. ; Gavin, J. (Columbia Univ., Palisades, NY (USA)) |
| Publication Date | 1990 Sep 20 |
| OSTI Identifier | OSTI ID: 6062049 |
| DOE Contract Number | FG02-85ER60372 |
| Other Number(s) | Journal ID: ISSN 0148-0227; CODEN: JGREA |
| Resource Type | Journal Article |
| Resource Relation | Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research; (USA); Journal Volume: 95:D10 |
| Subject | 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; 01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT; CLIMATES; VARIATIONS; GREENHOUSE EFFECT; EVALUATION; AMBIENT TEMPERATURE; ANNUAL VARIATIONS; CARBON DIOXIDE; CLIMATE MODELS; CLOUDS; CORRELATIONS; FORECASTING; GASES; MONTE CARLO METHOD; RAIN; REGIONAL ANALYSIS; SEASONAL VARIATIONS; SOLAR RADIATION; USA; ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS; CARBON COMPOUNDS; CARBON OXIDES; CHALCOGENIDES; FLUIDS; MATHEMATICAL MODELS; NORTH AMERICA; OXIDES; OXYGEN COMPOUNDS; RADIATIONS; STELLAR RADIATION |
| Description/Abstract | During the period 1948-1987, the concentration of anthropogenic greenhouse gases increased by more than 30%, and the mean annual temperature of the northern hemisphere increased by about 0.15{degree}C. To gain a better understanding of why the US temperature record does not reflect the anticipated greenhouse warming, the authors studied the inter-relationships between trends of temperature, cloudiness, sunshine and precipitation. Both the seasonal and annual trends for 23 geographic regions covering the US were analyzed using Monte Carlo field significance tests. While winters and autumns cooled, springs and summers warmed. Annually, cooling has occurred across the eastern half of the country, while warming dominates in the West. The largest changes in maximum temperature, daily temperature range, cloud amount, percent of possible sunshine and precipitation occur during autumn. They found that the recent decrease of the maximum temperature and daily temperature range in autumn is statistically associated with increasing cloud amount and precipitation, and with decreasing sunshine. Cloud amount increased over most of the country during all seasons except spring. Interestingly, no significant correlation was found between trends of mean temperature and cloud amount. Either the recent changes of temperature, cloud amount, sunshine and precipitation over the US are as yet unrelated to the increasing anthropogenic greenhouse gases, or that the transient response of regional climates to the greenhouse effect is not proportional to the modeled difference between the 1 {times} CO{sub 2} and 2 {times} CO{sub 2} equilibrium climates. |
| Country of Publication | United States |
| Language | English |
| Format | Medium: X; Size: Pages: 16,617-16,637 |
| System Entry Date | 2009 Dec 17 |
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