2022 tied for fifth hottest year

Earth’s average surface temperature in 2022 will be the same as in 2015, making it the fifth warmest on record, according to new data Analysis by NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Continuing the Earth’s long-term warming trend, global temperatures in 2022 will be 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.89 degrees Celsius) above the Institute’s 1951-1980 baseline period average.

The past nine years have been the warmest since modern records began in 1880. In 2022 the Earth will be about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1.11 degrees Celsius) warmer than the average temperature at the end of the 19th century.

“The warming trend occurs because human activities continue to pump large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and the long-term effects on Earth will continue,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of the Goddard Institute, NASA’s main climate research center. modeling.

Over the past two years, human-driven greenhouse gas emissions have brief fall In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Recently, scientists from NASA and other agencies determined that CO2 emissions in 2022 are highest record. Using satellite measurements, NASA also identified more than 50 super launcher Methane, another powerful greenhouse gas, comes mainly from fossil fuels, waste and agricultural sources.

The Arctic continues to experience the strongest warming trend—nearly four times the global average—according to Goddard Institute Research Presented at the American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting 2022, and a separate Learn.

Communities around the world are experiencing these effects. Climate change intensifies rainfall and tropical storms, deepens drought severity and increases the impact of storm surges.last year brought rainy monsoon The rains that devastated Pakistan and the incessant severe drought in the American Southwest. in September, Hurricane Ian Becomes one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the continental US

NASA’s global temperature analysis is based on data collected by weather stations around the world, as well as instruments mounted on ships and ocean buoys. NASA scientists analyze these measurements to account for uncertainties in the data and to maintain a consistent method for calculating the annual global mean surface temperature difference. Surface temperature measurements are consistent with satellite data collected since 2002.

Many factors affect the average temperature in any given year, and NASA includes short-term climate models to ensure its analysis includes natural variation. For example, 2022 was the warmest year on record, despite the tropical Pacific Ocean experiencing a third year of La Niña, which tends to produce cooler sea surface temperatures. NASA scientists estimate that the cooling effects of La Niña could lower global temperatures slightly (about 0.11 degrees Fahrenheit or 0.06 degrees Celsius) below average under more typical ocean conditions.

independent, independent analysis The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) concluded this week that the global surface temperature in 2022 will be the sixth warmest since 1880. NOAA scientists used much of the same raw temperature data in their analysis, but with a different baseline period (1901-2000) and method. Although the rankings for a given year may vary slightly between records, they are broadly consistent. Both reflect continued long-term warming.

The Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York is part of Columbia University’s Earth Institute and its School of Engineering and Applied Science.