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gfdl's home page > gfdl on-line bibliography > 2002: Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology, 3rd Edition, 7, 107-128
Greenhouse warming research
| Wetherald, R. T., 2002: Greenhouse warming research. Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology, 3rd Edition, 7, 107-128 |
| Abstract: During the summer of 1988, one of the worst droughts in history occurred across most of the North American continent. During the subsequent winter, in the eastern United States, particularly in the mountainous watershed regions along the Appalachian range, very little snow fell. Since then, other anomalous weather events have occurred; severe flooding of the Mississippi River basin in the summer of 1993 and a series of abnormally dry summers and warm winters in the eastern United States with little or no snow in the late 1990s. Regardless of what caused these phenomena, they serve as graphic examples of what can happen if our climate changes significantly from that to which we have become accustomed. In particular, the summer of 1988, as well as an overall tendency for global warming since then, has sparked a great deal of discussion on the topic of greenhouse warming and whether or not it has actually begun. |
| The Climate Dynamics Group of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of NOAA, formerly headed by Dr. Syukuro Manabe, began researching the greenhouse effect in the late 1960s and early 1970s. During this period, data on atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2 ) obtained by Dr. C. D. Keeling and his colleagues working at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii and Antarctica became available and indicated that atmospheric concentrations of CO2 were, indeed, increasing and increasing at a fairly consistent rate. These observations, coupled with the theoretical research work being done at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), laid the foundation for a transition of greenhouse theory from science fiction to science. |