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Also interesting to note is the high negative anomaly in Antarctica. Although with a positive anomaly, the Artic isn’t as hot as last, which might indicate a turbulent winter end. Looking at it globally, it looks like the Northern Hemisphere is hotter and the Southern cooler.
I’d also like to emphasize that plotting global data on a cylindrical projection (giving a rectangle world) is a real bad option, Greenland has the size of South America and Antarctica is the larger continent. It’s about time for the Climatologists to start using other cartographic projections.
That is a very good point and not one I'd thought about before. On a map like that where we naturally draw conclusions from area it would be nice if the areas were correct - the absolute shapes aren't so important. Is there a Photoshop transform or similar that would let of adjust these maps?
I doubt there is one in Photoshop, but anyway I don’t use it that much. The better thing to do is to re-project the data using some GIS software.
But the worst of all is if this kind of charts is produced with interpolations already in the Cartographic plane. If so, one should expect important distortions on the frigid zones.
Orthographic Projections
Western Hemisphere
Eastern Hemisphere
It is clearly visible, the highest temperature increase is again around the arctic regions. In winter, temperatures in this region are anyway below the freezing point, so there is no expected ice melt.
However this temperature pattern - as far as I can tell - is the same in summer time. And this is really important for the climate change dynamic, which is going on there.
Two days agao, there was a comment about the cubic mile oil. Putting this picture into perspective, Greenland obviuosly looses 52 cbm of ice each year. Which is quite a lot....
.
Thanks Alan. Where did you got those? Do you know if the interpolations made to obtain these charts where originally made on an equal-area cartographic plane?
I used Titan24 to generate the orthographic projections from the images you posted after cropping the labels. If you are interested in creating other views Titan24 is available here:
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/titan24/
To use it to view something other than Titan you only need to add a cylindrical projection to the sourcemaps folder.
Hello Luis de Sousa,
Good point on the hemispheric temp disparity. Makes one wonder how that will affect weather, climate, and ocean currents going forward as physical law will try to equalize this differential over time. I sure hope the climate scientists can develop equations for this to include in their computer models.
The South Atlantic normally has no hurricanes, but if memory serves, I recall one forming off Brazil two years ago. Perhaps, South Atlantic hurricanes will become a normal event to extract excess heat from the north hemisphere and send it south. Possibly, more hurricanes or typhoons for the South Pacific and Southern Indian Oceans too--watch out Africa and Australia! Time will tell.
Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Higher latitudes tend to warm more than lower latitudes in comparisons like these because of a positive feedback called the albedo effect. Albedo is a measure of a surface's reflective ability. Snow has a very high ability to reflect sunlight. If areas marginally covered with snow melt, or have no snow, the reflectivity of the ground decreases. The decrease is accompanied by (more) warming as the ground absorbs more solar radiation, and we have a positive feedback.
There is far more land in the northern hemisphere than the southern hemisphere and land warms more rapidly than the ocean. This does, as you point out, have implications for winds and atmospheric circulation. Although parts of the Antarctic ice sheet’s margins have been melting, the interior of the Antarctic ice sheet, like Greenland, is at high elevation and the air is really cold. Observations suggest that the air temperature over much of Antarctica has been getting colder in recent decades.
Nice posts :-)
Can anybody make an estimate of "Heating Demand Destruction" caused by the mild winter? It would be interesting to see, how much of the presently discussed "Demand destruction" that is caused by the mild weather. After record high winter temperatures, we will get the first real frost this week in Denmark.
Now how much energy is saved by 1 degree C hotter climate?
At Scandinavian climate a 1 oC( 1.8 oF) higher or lower indoor temperature correspond to some 6-7% extra/less heating energy use. So 1 oC higher outdoor temperature should result in 6-7% savings in heating energy use. In Denmark heating energy use is approx 30% of total energy use (all sources)so one degree hotter all winter should result in 2% lower total energy use.
Later in 2007 it should be possible to estimate the actual savings, nation for nation from the recorded heating degree days during the 2006/7 winter, and the savings could be (roughly) distributed into gas, oil, coal, nuclear etc. I am sure that TODDERS in the power sector have actual estimates of this.
Kind regards/And1
But in the northern hemisphere, the arctic ice melts.
Ocean, not covered in ice has a lower albedo.
As ice melts, the low albedo ocean absorbs more energy warming the ocean up, melting more ice, creating a lessening of albedo, absorbing more energy, melting more ice
etc.
Well really. The Northern Hemisphere is warmer because the sun is up in the sky, not down by your feet! The top of the world warms faster than the bottom of the world.
Aha! That would explain why I get cold feet.
For those who wonder how to reconcile this with a round earth, it is the tilt in the earth's axis that does the trick.
New Zealand had the coldest December in 60 years. Miserable start for a supposed summer.
Last winter in the Southern Hemisphere also set records. People dying frozen in South Africa, unseen snowfall in South America. It seems that the cooling trend in Antarctica is spreading north.