Why is it acceptable to say that CO2 levels at Mauna Loa, Hawaii are representative of CO2 levels around the world? – jsu |
[1]
The atmosphere is is a well-mixed system. Measurements at distant sites may fluctuate with respect to each other, but the long term trend is the same. |
Answer. I don't know, why?? – cvh |
Answer. Tap the flash card above once, then tap "Show Answer" on the bottom of the screen to see.(short answer: the atmosphere is well mixed). – jsu |
[2] |
A biography of Keeling's life and methods, documenting his persistent collection of accurate climate data in the face of variable funding and changing politics. – jsu |
Later, as a staff scientist at Scripps, Keeling developed a faster way to measure CO2 concentrations, using a device called a non-dispersive infrared spectrometer. – jsu |
[3] |
An interactive Keeling curve -- zoom in and out to explore the data on hourly, weekly, monthly, and yearly time scales, with data included all the way to the present day. – jsu |
[4] |
Seasonal variations are larger in the Northern Hemisphere because the Northern Hemisphere contains more plants. – jsu |
Combining the Keeling curve with historical data from ice cores, we see that the rise in CO2 levels is unlike anything the Earth has seen for hundreds of thousands of years. – jsu |
Question. Add a card with your own sketch of a key portion of the global carbon cycle, indicating where human activity has an impact. – cvh |
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CarbonCycle/ (Units in Gigatons and Gigatons Per Year) – cvh |
Natural vs. Human-induced. The signals are distinct now.(Stocker et al., Technical Summary, Climate Change 2013, Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC) – cvh |
What do the shaded blue and purple bars represent? – jsu |
Error bars or estimated uncertainties in the climate models. We want to make sure differences we see are due to real effects, and not variability of models. |