The Atmosphere

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Earth’s lower atmosphere is rising due to climate changeIn the Northern Hemisphere, the upper boundary of the troposphere, the slice of sky closest to the ground, rose 50 to 60 meters a decade from 1980 to 2020.

Climate change may be why birds are migrating earlier across the United StatesBirds are migrating earlier in recent decades in the United States, which could disrupt feeding or nesting cycles.

2021 will be another busy year for the Atlantic hurricane seasonThe average season is busier than it used to be, as NOAA predicts 13 to 20 named Atlantic storms between June 1 and November 30.

With Theta, 2020 sets the record for most named Atlantic stormsClimate change is expected to fuel fewer — yet more intense — Atlantic storms. With a whopping 29 storms but few strong ones, 2020 may be an outlier.

Climate change may be speeding up ocean circulationCirculation in the top 2,000 meters of the world’s oceans has increased as a result of faster winds around the globe, a study suggests.

Climate change may make El Niño and La Niña less predictableAtlantic Niñas and Niños have been fairly reliable bellwethers for severe El Niño and La Niña events in the Pacific. A warming world may change that.

Fewer El Niño and La Niña events in a warmer worldThe cycling between warm El Niño and cold La Niña conditions in the eastern Pacific has persisted without major interruptions for at least the last 11,000 years. This may change in the future.

Extraordinary carbon emissions from El Nino-induced biomass burning estimatedIn 2015, massive biomass burning events occurred in Equatorial Asia which released a large amount of carbon into the atmosphere, whose signals were captured by in-situ high-precision measurements onboard commercial passenger aircraft and a cargo ship. A simulation-based analysis with those observations estimated the fire-induced carbon emissions to be 273 Tg C for September - October 2015.

A drop in CFC emissions puts the hole in the ozone layer back on track to closingAfter a recent bump in illicit CFC-11 pollution, emissions of the ozone-destroying chemical are back down to pre-2013 levels.

Websites

www.climate.gov/enso

www.pmel.noaa.gov/elnino/

uk-air.defra.gov.uk/research/ozone-uv/moreinfo?view=deleption-climate-change#:~:text=Atmospheric%20ozone%20has%20two%20effects%20on%20the%20temperature%20balance%20of%20the%20Earth.&text=It%20also%20absorbs%20infrared%20radiation,which%20these%20ozone%20changes%20occur.

Is the ozone hole causing climate change? – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the PlanetVital Signs of the Planet: Global Climate Change and Global Warming. Current news and data streams about global warming and climate change from NASA.

Journal Articles

Global ozone depletion and increase of UV radiation caused by pre-industrial tropical volcanic eruptions - Scientific Reports

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Podcasts

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Videos

The economic benefits of climate action Marcelo Mena, the former environment minister of Chile, is on a mission to create a zero-emission economy in his country by 2050. In a conversation about climate action, he discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic is changing Chile's ambitious plan to tackle climate change -- and explains why the green recovery needs to be powered by both political leaders and citizens alike. (This virtual conversation, hosted by TED current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers and global curator Bruno Giussani, was recorded on May 26, 2020.)

A new way to remove CO2 from the atmosphereOur planet has a carbon problem -- if we don't start removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, we'll grow hotter, faster. Chemical engineer Jennifer Wilcox previews some amazing technology to scrub carbon from the air, using chemical reactions that capture and reuse CO2 in much the same way trees do ... but at a vast scale. This detailed talk reviews both the promise and the pitfalls.

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