As the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen gets into full swing, it’s a good time to take a look around and assess the current state of things. In the 30 years of direct satellite observation… Solar irradiance has declined (Source: PMOD/WRC) which should drive temperatures down, and we are currently in the middle … Continue reading
The Climate Change Indicators page has been updated to include information on global glacial retreat as documented by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS). Earlier this year, the WGMS posted glacier mass balance data for 2006 and 2007 for 115 glaciers located around the world from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Antarctica. Additional … Continue reading
The Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) is a coordinated effort to visually study and document rapidly changing glaciers around the world using time-lapse photography, conventional photography, and video. Sponsored in part by NASA, the National Science Foundation, and National Geographic, the EIS utilizes 27 cameras installed at 15 sites including Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, and the Rocky … Continue reading
Hasn’t Antarctica actually gained ice mass? When discussing Antarctica, it’s first important to get a sense of scale. Discussions of the Arctic and the Antarctic often confuse the two, but the region around the Earth’s southern pole is much, much larger. Antarctica, the continent, is about 5.4 million square miles in area, which is over … Continue reading