Climate Change

The climate system constantly changes due to internal variability and natural external perturbation. Anthropogenic climate change (due to human caused emissions of greenhouse gases) must be distinguished and characterized from this constantly changing background. Controlled experiments of the actual climate system are not possible but controlled simulation experiments using representative models examine how the natural system will respond. Observations and models together detected a novel change in climate over the past century and attribute that change as likely due to human activities. Analysis and prediction of climate system phenomena often depend on particular spatial or temporal scales. The short term fluctuations in weather are heavily influenced by changes in irregular internal processes and small-scale interactions (e.g. between the ocean and atmosphere). Chaotic responses result, which precludes long-term forecasts in the absence of perfect observations and formulations that perfectly predict atmospheric dynamics. In contrast, longer-term climate characteris tics such as the seasonal cycle are primarily determined by regular periodic forcing (e.g. the earth’s orbit) and are generally predictable. However, interactions between sub-units of the climate system (e.g. ocean, atmosphere, cryosphere, and biosphere) do sometimes lead to complex behavior not evident when each sub-unit is viewed in isolation. Such ‘emer gent properties’ include the occurrence of abrupt changes and multiple equilibria. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Atmospheric sciences · Biosphere · Climate change · Climate commitment · Climate model · Climate system · Climatology · Earth system science · Effects of global warming · Forcing (mathematics) · Global warming · Greenhouse gas · Perturbation (astronomy) · Physics · Term (time) · Transient climate simulation · Climate variability and models · Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution · Ecology · Environmental Science · Geology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Oceanography

• Climate change 2001

  John Theodore Houghton•Climate change 2001•2001

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• The Essence of Chaos

  Edward N Lorenz•The Essence Of Chaos•1993

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• A Pervasive Millennial-Scale Cycle in North Atlantic Holocene and Glacial Climates

  Open Access•Gérard C Bond, Gerard Bond et al.•Science•1997

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• Evidence for general instability of past climate from a 250-kyr ice-core record

  Open Access•W Dansgaard, Sara Johnsen et al.•Nature•1993

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• Decadal Trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation

  Open Access•James W Hurrell•Science•1995

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• Abrupt increase in Greenland snow accumulation at the end of the Younger Dryas event

  Open Access•Richard B Alley, D A Meese et al.•Nature•1993

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• Global changes in the perspective of the past

  Open Access•Richard Washington•Global Environmental Change•1996

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