Climate Change as Seen from Outer Space
February 11, 2011
Ralph Cicerone
President of the National Academy of Sciences
and Chancellor Emeritus of the University of California, Irvine
The physical climate of our planet and its regions is characterized by temperatures, rain and snow patterns, sea level, winds, and many other variables. Mapping the full range of climatic behavior requires many measurements over differing geographical areas and time scales—day-to-day, season-to-season, and year-to-year. There is much evidence of global climate change especially in the last 30 years. Rising temperatures are strongly linked to increased amounts of atmospheric greenhouse gases from human activities. Dr. Cicerone, an eminent climate scientist, reviews up-to-date data on temperatures of air and water, ice amounts, and sea level, including many observations taken from Earth-orbiting satellites.
