A deadly virus and a massive economic downturn haven’t stopped global warming’s atmospheric gases from soaring to the highest levels in history, scientists said last year.
Based on inputs from more than 530 scientists from over 60 countries and collected by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), State of the Climate is set to be the 31st edition in 2020 of the world’s top annual assessments of the global climate system.
The NOAA assessment, published this week in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, is based on the work of 530 researchers from 66 nations.
The atmospheric levels of other principal greenhouse gases, including methane and nitrous oxide, also continued to rise to record levels last year despite the pandemic.
Scientists are unsure why methane concentrations have risen so drastically – to 14.8 parts per million, the highest level seen for thousands of years.
The oceans absorbed record levels of CO2, the global temperature in the upper oceans has become a record high, and the global average surface temperature has been the third fastest on record.
Sea levels today are some 3.6 centimeters (3.8 inches) above 1993 levels, when scientists began making satellite measurements.
The iceola continued to warm faster, reducing temperatures at higher latitudes, leading to more CO2-emitting fires, while the minimum extent of sea ice is the second smallest in satellite history.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations mandated to provide objective scientific information relevant to understanding human-induced climate (wikipedia)
IPCC Fifth Assessment Report
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