Coherence among the Northern Hemisphere land, cryosphere, and ocean
responses to natural variability and anthropogenic forcing during the
satellite era

Gonsamo, Alemu; Chen, Jing M.; Shindell, Drew T.; Asner, Gregory P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-717-2016

Articles | Volume 7, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-717-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-7-717-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 7, issue 3

Research article

|

30 Aug 2016

Research article |

| 30 Aug 2016

Coherence among the Northern Hemisphere land, cryosphere, and ocean responses to natural variability and anthropogenic forcing during the satellite era

Alemu Gonsamo, Jing M. Chen, Drew T. Shindell, and Gregory P. Asner

Data sets

The Northern Hemisphere GISS surface temperature NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp

The HadCRUT4 hybrid temperature Hadley Centre (UK Met Office) and Climatic Research Unit (University of East Anglia) https://crudata.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature

The first flower bloom day of Canada NatureWatch Canada https://www.naturewatch.ca/plantwatch

The snow cover data Rutgers university- global snow lab http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover

The sea level data Sea Level Research Group-University of Colorado http://sealevel.colorado.edu

The Point Barrow atmospheric CO2 concentration data National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|Earth System Research Laboratory|Global Monitoring Division http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/dv/data

The solar irradiance data (version d41_62_1302) The Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos (PMOD) ftp://ftp.pmodwrc.ch/pub/data/irradiance

The cosmic ray neutron monitor data Germany Coamic Ray Monitor ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/STP/SOLAR_DATA/COSMIC_RAYS/STATION_DATA/Kiel

The Northern Hemisphere teleconnection indices National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|Center for Weather and Climate Prediction|Climate Prediction Center http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/data/teledoc/telecontents.shtml

ENSO-Niño 3.4 index (NINO) data National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|Center for Weather and Climate Prediction|Climate Prediction Center http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/ensostuff/detrend.nino34.ascii.txt

Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation data National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|Earth System Research Laboratory|Physical Sciences Division http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/timeseries/AMO

The Stratospheric Aerosol Optical Thickness NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) http://data.giss.nasa.gov/modelforce/strataer

The radiative forcing of the 20 well-mixed greenhouse gases National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|Earth System Research Laboratory|Global Monitoring Division http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/aggi

The Northern Hemisphere sea ice exten National Snow and Ice Data Center ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135/

The Northern Hemisphere sea ice concentration National Snow and Ice Data Center ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/pub/DATASETS/nsidc0051_gsfc_nasateam_seaice/final-gsfc/

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI3g) data Global Inventory Modelling and Mapping Studies https://ecocast.arc.nasa.gov/data/pub/gimms/3g.v0/

Short summary

Using 3 decades of observational satellite and field data, we find that long-term changes in sea ice and sea level, plant phenology, and surface temperature are coherent with increases in atmospheric CO₂ concentration and other global greenhouse gases. During the same period, natural causes of climate change should only have a net cooling long-term effect, suggesting the observed coherent pattern of changes across Earth's biological and physical systems could only be due to human activities.