Arctic Oscillation: 1 – Trends (Update 1)

arctic oscillation (AO): 1 -  trends Since 1950

In this post, I begin a series on the Arctic Oscillation (AO) .  This post  presents a chart of monthly AO Index from 1950 to the present and introductory information on AO .  I will be updating this chart each month as NOAA updates the data series.  A link to the RClimate script that downloads the source data from NOAA is provided.

Update 1: Reader skrafner noticed that my plot legend indicated a 60-day moving average while the script actually calculated a 60-month moving avg. I’ve updated  the script and plot.

2010 Arctic Sea Ice Melt Season Still Not Over

On September 12th, I asked if the 2010 Arctic Sea ice melt season was over. I got my answer today, NO! JAXA’s 9/15 SIE dropped 58,000 km^2 to its lowest value of the 2010 season. 2010 is now just 195,000 km^2 above 2008. 4 more days like 9/15, and 2010 could wind up in 2nd place, behind 2007.

Here’s my latest Arctic Update.

GISS August, 2010 Temperature Anomalies

GISS has issued their August, 2010 temperature anomalies. Here’s the long term trend and 2×2 degree map.

Mapping Temperature Anomalies with R

In this post I show how to map NASA GISS’s  2×2 degree temperature anomaly data using R mapping tools. Rather than rely on a single value to reflect monthly global temperature anomaly, this map shows the anomalies  in each of the 16,200 cells in a  2 degree lon/lat grid. This lets us see the details that make up the global mean, we can see which areas are warmer and which are cooler.  I provide a link to my RClimate script and data file so that interested R users can make their own maps.

Here’s my R Climate map of NASA’s July 2010 2×2 degree data set. (Click map to check out the enlargement )

Climate Change Related Videos Worth Watching

Jules Klimaatbog is my favorite site for keeping up on global warming news. Jules maintains an up-to-date summary of climate related posts from an impressive list of climate science blogs. You’ll need to scroll down a few lines to see the Blogs In English list on the left below the Recent Comments and Archives. It’s well worth a visit, I check it several times a day to see who is saying what.

Today I found 2 interesting climate related videos that I would not have seen if I hadn’t visited Jules Klimaatblog.

California Senate Campaign Debate:  Carley Fiorina and Senator Boxer – as reported on Climate Progress

Fiorina won’t answer a direct question about her position on California Proposition 23.

Be sure to watch entire video to see Senator Boxer nail the jobs – global warming link.

Naom Chomsky on Global Warming Consensus as reported on Climate Change – the Next generation

Global Warming in My Lifetime – July’s Story

NASA GISS has a great web application that let’s users generate  maps of global monthly temperature anomalies in 2 degree grids.  I’ve made a 27 second video of 7 decade maps for July to see how global temperature anomalies have progressed through my life so far.

Here’s the link to NASA GISS’s map application page. It’s very easy to use.

My video shows 7 maps, each showing the July average for each of the 16,200 grid cells (2×2 lat/lon).
Click to play

GISS_temp_July

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