• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

RealClimate

Climate science from climate scientists...

  • Start here
  • Model-Observation Comparisons
  • Miscellaneous Climate Graphics
  • Surface temperature graphics
You are here: Home / Archives for Climate Science / Climate modelling

Climate modelling

Temperature Variations in Past Centuries and the so-called "Hockey Stick"

4 Dec 2004 by mike

Translations: (Français) (English)

Instrumental data describing large-scale surface temperature changes are only available for roughly the past 150 years. Estimates of surface temperature changes further back in time must therefore make use of the few long available instrumental records or historical documents and natural archives or ‘climate proxy’ indicators, such as tree rings, corals, ice cores and lake sediments, and historical documents to reconstruct patterns of past surface temperature change. Due to the paucity of data in the Southern Hemisphere, recent studies have emphasized the reconstruction of Northern Hemisphere (NH) mean, rather than global mean temperatures over roughly the past 1000 years.

[Read more…] about Temperature Variations in Past Centuries and the so-called "Hockey Stick"

Filed Under: Climate modelling, Climate Science, Greenhouse gases, Paleoclimate, Sun-earth connections

Antarctic cooling, global warming?

3 Dec 2004 by Gavin

Translations: (Français) (English)

by Eric Steig and Gavin Schmidt
Long term temperature data from the Southern Hemisphere are hard to find, and by the time you get to the Antarctic continent, the data are extremely sparse. Nonetheless, some patterns do emerge from the limited data available. The Antarctic Peninsula, site of the now-defunct Larsen-B ice shelf, has warmed substantially. On the other hand, the few stations on the continent and in the interior appear to have cooled slightly (Doran et al, 2002; GISTEMP). At first glance this seems to contradict the idea of “global” warming, but one needs to be careful before jumping to this conclusion.

[Read more…] about Antarctic cooling, global warming?

Filed Under: Arctic and Antarctic, Climate modelling, Climate Science, Greenhouse gases

Michaels misquotes Hansen

2 Dec 2004 by Gavin

Pat Michaels (under the guise of the Greening Earth society) is particularly fond of misquoting Jim Hansen, director of the NASA GISS laboratory (and in the interests of full disclosure, GS’s boss).

Recently he claimed that Dr. Hansen has now come around to the ‘skeptics’ (i.e. Pat Michaels) way of thinking and suggests that they agree on the (small) amount of warming to be expected in the future. Michaels quotes Hansen from a 2001 PNAS paper:

[Read more…] about Michaels misquotes Hansen

Filed Under: Climate modelling, Greenhouse gases

Climate model scenarios

1 Dec 2004 by Gavin

Translations: (Français) (English)

A couple of commentators (Pat Michaels, Roy Spencer) recently raised an issue about the standard scenarios used to compare climate models, in this case related to a study on the potential increase in hurricane activity.

The biggest uncertainty in what will happen to climate in the future (say 30 years or more) is the course that the global economy will take and the changes in technology that may accompany that. Since climate scientists certainly don’t have a crystal ball, we generally take a range of scenarios or projections of future emissions of CO2 and other important forcings such as methane and aerosols.

[Read more…] about Climate model scenarios

Filed Under: Climate modelling, Climate Science, Greenhouse gases, IPCC

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 22
  • Page 23
  • Page 24

Primary Sidebar

Search

Search for:

Email Notification

get new posts sent to you automatically (free)
Loading

Recent Posts

  • Unforced Variations: Aug 2025
  • Are direct water vapor emissions endangering anyone?
  • The Endangerment of the Endangerment Finding?
  • National Climate Assessment links
  • Ocean circulation going South?
  • Melange à Trois

Our Books

Book covers
This list of books since 2005 (in reverse chronological order) that we have been involved in, accompanied by the publisher’s official description, and some comments of independent reviewers of the work.
All Books >>

Recent Comments

  • Susan Anderson on The Endangerment of the Endangerment Finding?
  • David on Unforced Variations: Aug 2025
  • David on Unforced Variations: Aug 2025
  • Tomáš Kalisz on Are direct water vapor emissions endangering anyone?
  • David on Unforced Variations: Aug 2025
  • Thomas Fuller on The Endangerment of the Endangerment Finding?
  • b fagan on Are direct water vapor emissions endangering anyone?
  • Atomsk's Sanakan on The Endangerment of the Endangerment Finding?
  • Thomas Fuller on The Endangerment of the Endangerment Finding?
  • MA Rodger on Unforced Variations: Aug 2025
  • John Mashey on The Endangerment of the Endangerment Finding?
  • b fagan on Unforced Variations: Aug 2025
  • Ken Towe on Are direct water vapor emissions endangering anyone?
  • Susan Anderson on Are direct water vapor emissions endangering anyone?
  • BRIAN C DODGE on Unforced Variations: Aug 2025
  • Tomáš Kalisz on Are direct water vapor emissions endangering anyone?
  • Tomáš Kalisz on Are direct water vapor emissions endangering anyone?
  • Thomas Fuller on The Endangerment of the Endangerment Finding?
  • Thomas Fuller on The Endangerment of the Endangerment Finding?
  • Ron R. on The Endangerment of the Endangerment Finding?

Footer

ABOUT

  • About
  • Translations
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Page
  • Login

DATA AND GRAPHICS

  • Data Sources
  • Model-Observation Comparisons
  • Surface temperature graphics
  • Miscellaneous Climate Graphics

INDEX

  • Acronym index
  • Index
  • Archives
  • Contributors

Realclimate Stats

1,374 posts

11 pages

245,219 comments

Copyright © 2025 · RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists.