{"id":13001,"date":"2012-08-31T06:30:57","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T11:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/?p=13001"},"modified":"2012-09-02T12:13:34","modified_gmt":"2012-09-02T17:13:34","slug":"climate-indices-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realclimate.org\/index.php\/archives\/2012\/08\/climate-indices-to-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate indices to watch"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What is the most important climate condition to keep tabs on?<\/strong> We have recently mentioned the record-low Arctic sea-ice extent<\/a>, but hurricanes this year seem to be getting the most attention because of timing ofHurricane Isaac<\/a> (I know of no evidence suggesting that the Arctic sea-ice has such a direct impact on U.S. politics!). <\/p>\n

In addition, the status<\/a> of ENSO issued by NOAA on August 27, 2012, states that El Ni\u00f1o conditions are likely to develop during August or September 2012, although the present state is classified as ‘ENSO-neutral<\/em>‘. El Ni\u00f1o has a strong influence on local economies and societies in fairly extensive regions of the world. ENSO is a natural phenomenon, but may change under a changing climate and is interesting to watch over the long term.<\/p>\n

It’s important to avoid getting lost into single indicators, however, as the climate system is complex, with many different parts interacting with one another. The American Meteorological Society<\/a><\/em><\/a> (AMS) recently put out a statement<\/a> on climate change, referring to a wide range of different climate indicators (here is a link<\/a> for the most common ones). The AMS is not alone – the National Academy for Sciences<\/a><\/em> (NAS) is also concerned about our climate and its many aspects: A fairly recent movie called Climate change at the NAS<\/del> Climate Change: Lines of Evidence<\/a> provides a comprehensive overview. <\/p>\n

Both AMS and NAS accounts provide a rich picture of many different aspects with many different (important) details, which make them fairly long and complicated. This is why simple indices sometimes are used – to convey a simple message. We need both, and that’s why the NAS video and the AMS statement are so valuable – at least for the readers who understand what they are talking about. I’m not sure that everybody does, though.<\/p>\n

R-script for making pretty picture<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/div> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the most important climate condition to keep tabs on? We have recently mentioned the record-low Arctic sea-ice extent, but hurricanes this year seem to be getting the most attention because of timing ofHurricane Isaac (I know of no evidence suggesting that the Arctic sea-ice has such a direct impact on U.S. politics!). In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,35,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-climate-science","category-communicating-climate","category-open-thread","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t