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Synthesis and Assessment Product
29
Tunza: The UNEP Magazine for Youth
25
Our Planet
24
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
16
Treaty doc.
11
IGBP Report
9
NASA Earth Observatory
9
Our Changing Planet
9
Annual Report on the Environment in Japan
7
UN Environmental Programme Annual Report
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Trends in Emissions of Ozone-Depleting Substances, Ozone Layer Recovery, and Implications for Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure
This Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP 2.4) focuses on the Climate models. Depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer by human-produced ozone-depleting substances has been recognized as a global environmental issue for more than three decades, and the international effort to address the issue via the United Nations Montreal Protocol marked its 20-year anniversary in 2007. Scientific understanding underpinned the Protocol at its inception and ever since. As scientific knowledge advanced and evolved, the Protocol evolved through amendment and adjustment. Policy-relevant science has documented the rise, and now the beginning decline, of the atmospheric abundances of many ozone-depleting substances in response to actions taken by the nations of the world. Projections are for a return of ozone-depleting chemicals (compounds containing chlorine and bromine) to their "pre-ozone-depletion" (pre-1980) levels by the middle of this century for the midlatitudes; the polar regions are expected to follow suit within 20 years after that. Since the 1980s, global ozone sustained a depletion of about 5 percent in the midlatitudes of both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, where most of the Earth's population resides; it is now showing signs of turning the corner towards increasing ozone. The large seasonal depletions in the polar regions are …
Date:
November 2008
Creator:
US Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research.
Object Type:
Book
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Climate Models: An Assessment of Strengths and Limitations
This Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP 3.1) focuses on the Climate models. Scientists extensively use mathematical models of Earth's climate, executed on the most powerful computers available, to examine hypotheses about past and present-day climates. Development of climate models is fully consistent with approaches being taken in many other fields of science dealing with very complex systems. These climate simulations provide a framework within which enhanced understanding of climate-relevant processes, along with improved observations, are merged into coherent projections of future climate change. This report describes the models and their ability to simulate current climate.
Date:
July 2008
Creator:
Climate Change Science Program (U.S.). Subcommittee on Global Change Research.
Object Type:
Book
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Climate Projections Based on Emissions Scenarios for Long-Lived and Short-Lived Radiatively Active Gases and Aerosols
This report focuses on the Climate Projections Based on Emissions Scenarios. The influence of greenhouse gases and particle pollution on our present and future climate has been widely examined. While both long-lived (e.g., carbon dioxide) and short-lived (e.g., soot) gases and particles affect the climate, other projections of future climate, such as the IPCC reports focus largely on the long-lived gases. This U.S. Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product provides a different emphasis. The authors examine the effect of long-lived greenhouse gases on the global climate based on updated emissions scenarios produced by another CCSP Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP 2.1a). In these scenarios, atmospheric concentrations of the long-lived greenhouse gases leveled off, or stabilized, at predetermined levels by the end of the twenty-first century (unlike in the IPCC scenarios). However, the projected future temperature changes fall within the same range as those projected for the latest IPCC report. The authors confirm the robust future warming signature and other associated changes in the climate.
Date:
September 2008
Creator:
U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research
Object Type:
Book
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Impacts of Climate Change and Variability on Transportation Systems and Infrastructure: Gulf Coast Study, Phase I
This document, part of the Synthesis and Assessment Products described in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) Strategic Plan. Climate affects the design, construction, safety, operations, and maintenance of transportation infrastructure and systems. The prospect of a changing climate raises critical questions regarding how alterations in temperature, precipitation, storm events, and other aspects of the climate could affect the nation's roads, airports, rail, transit systems, pipelines, ports, and waterways. Phase I of this regional assessment of climate change and its potential impacts on transportation systems addresses these questions for the region of the U.S. central Gulf Coast between Galveston, Texas and Mobile, Alabama. This region contains multimodal transportation infrastructure that is critical to regional and national transportation services. The significance of various climate factors for transportation systems was assessed.
Date:
March 2008
Creator:
U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research
Object Type:
Book
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Uses and Limitations of Observations, Data, Forecasts, and Other Projections in Decision Support for Selected Sectors and Regions
This Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP), Uses and Limitations of Observations, Data, Forecasts, and Other Projections in Decision Support for Selected Sectors and Regions. This is part of a series of 21 SAPs produced by the CCSP aimed at providing current assessments of climate change science to inform public debate, policy, and operational decisions. This SAP focuses on the use of climate observations, data, forecasts, and other projections in decision support.
Date:
August 2008
Creator:
U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research
Object Type:
Book
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Best Practice Approaches for Characterizing, Communicating, and Incorporating Scientific Uncertainty in Decision Making
This report discusses the current state of understanding about the characteristics and implications of uncertainty related to climate change and variability to an audience of policymakers, decision makers, and members of the media and general public with an interest in developing a fundamental understanding of the issue.
Date:
January 2009
Creator:
U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research
Object Type:
Book
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Reanalysis of Historical Climate Data for Key Atmospheric Features: Implications for Attribution of Causes of Observed Chan
This Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product addresses current capabilities to integrate observations of the climate system into a consistent description of past and current conditions through the method of reanalysis. In addition, the Product assesses present capabilities to attribute causes for climate variations and trends over North America during the reanalysis period, which extends from the mid-twentieth century to the present. This Product reviews the strengths and limitations of current atmospheric reanalysis products. It finds that reanalysis data play a crucial role in helping to identify, describe, and understand atmospheric features associated with weather and climate variability, including high-impact events such as major droughts and floods. Reanalysis data play an important role in assessing the ability of climate models to simulate the average climate and its variations. The data also help in identifying deficiencies in representations of physical processes that produce climate model errors.
Date:
2008
Creator:
U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research
Object Type:
Book
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Scenarios of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Atmospheric Concentrations
This and a companion report constitute one of twenty-one Synthesis and Assessment Products called for in the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. These studies are structured to provide high-level, integrated research results on important science issues with a particular focus on questions raised by decision-makers on dimensions of climate change directly relevant to the U.S. One element of the CCSP's strategic vision is to provide decision support tools for differentiating and evaluating response strategies. Scenario-based analysis is one such tool. The scenarios in this report explore the implications of alternative stabilization levels of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, and they explicitly consider the economic and technological foundations of such response options. Such scenarios are a valuable complement to other scientific research contained in the twenty-one CCSP Synthesis and Assessment Products. The companion to the research reported here, Global-Change Scenarios: Their Development and Use, explores the broader strategic frame for developing and utilizing scenarios in support of climate decision making.
Date:
2007
Creator:
U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research
Object Type:
Book
System:
The UNT Digital Library
A Strategy for Climate Change Stabilization Experiments with AOGCMs and ESMs
This report outlines a strategy for the new AOGCM/ESM modeling components in terms of aerosols/atmospheric chemistry and carbon cycle/dynamic vegetation components that are under development and implementation in ESMs that involves a proposed experimental design that integrates impacts and scenarios (represented in IPCC WG2 and WG3, respectively) and physical climate science (WG1). We summarize with a suite of recommendations for the joint WGCM, AIMES and IPCC communities.
Date:
May 2007
Creator:
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Future Climate Change Research and Observations: GCOS, WCRP and IGBP Learning from the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report
Learning from the authors of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and its findings to help guide future strategies for climate change observations and research was the key objective of a workshop organised jointly by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) in Sydney, Australia, 4-6 October 2007.
Date:
2008
Creator:
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
NOAA Reports Potent Greenhouse Gas Levels Off
This document provides a summary of a study by NOAA researchers and National Institute for Space Research in the Netherlands. According to the study, one of the atmosphere's most potent greenhouse gases, methane, may now have leveled off. Scientists aren't sure yet if this "leveling off" is just a temporary pause in two centuries of increase or a new state of equilibrium.
Date:
November 17, 2003
Creator:
NOAA News Online
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
NOAA Sets the El Niño Prediction Straight
El Niño is an abnormal warming of the ocean temperatures across the eastern tropical Pacific that affects weather around the globe. El Niño episodes usually occur approximately every four-five years. NOAA researchers and scientists are presently monitoring the formation of a possible weak El Niño and predict that the United States could experience very weak-to-marginal impacts late winter to early spring 2002.
Date:
September 7, 2001
Creator:
NOAA News
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Arctic Flora and Fauna: Recommendations for Conservation
This booklet contains a series of recommendations from the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna Working Group. It is intended to serve as a set of strategic guidelines for all parties interested in Arctic conservation.
Date:
2002
Creator:
Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF)
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Carbon Sequestration - Field Hearing
This brief document contains remarks by Dr. James Mahoney to the U.S Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Date:
June 6, 2003
Creator:
Mahoney, James R.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Revised Research Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program
This Revised Research Plan is an update to the 2003 Strategic Plan of the US Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), a document that was developed via a thorough, open and transparent multi-year process involving a wide range of scientists and managers. The Strategic Plan has long-term value to CCSP, but like any strategic plan, it must be supplemented by shorter-term revisions that take into account both advances in the science and changes in societal needs, and CCSP has an ongoing long-range strategic planning process to ensure that these needs are met. The Revised Research Plan (hereinafter referred to as the Research Plan) draws on CCSP's long-range planning process and provides this update, in compliance with the terms of the Global Change Research Act (GCRA) of 1990. In the Research Plan, the reader will find several things: 1) an updated statement of vision, goals and capabilities consistent with CCSP's current Strategic Plan but reflecting both scientific progress and the evolution of the Program based on accomplishments and evolving societal and environmental needs; 2) a description of the relationship of the Research Plan to the current Scientific Assessment; 3) highlights of ways in which the program is evolving in the context of …
Date:
May 2008
Creator:
US Climate Change Science Program
Object Type:
Book
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Clouds in the Balance
This feature article provides a summary of study about the role of clouds in the balance. Until recently, scientists were uncertain whether clouds had an overall net cooling or heating effect on the Earth's climate. But recent studies show that, in the tropics, a "near cancellation" between shortwave cooling and longwave warming exists, which indicates that the amount of incoming radiant energy is roughly equal to the amount of outgoing radiation. However, small changes in tropical cloudiness can disrupt this precarious balance.
Date:
October 11, 2001
Creator:
Schmidt, Laurie J.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Declaration of the Earth Observation Summit
This single page document is a declaration of the participants of the Earth Observation Summit held in Washington DC, adopted on July 31, 2003. An affirmation for the need for timely, quality, long-term, global information as a basis for sound decision making. Also establishes an ad hoc Group on Earth Observations aimed at developing a global observing strategy.
Date:
July 31, 2003
Creator:
[Earth Observation Summit]
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Definitions and Methodological Options to Inventory Emissions from Direct Human-induced Degradation of Forests and Devegetation of Other Vegetation Types
This report on Definitions and Methodological Options to Inventory Emissions from Direct Human-Induced Degradation of Forests and Devegetation of Other Vegetation Types is the response from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)1 to an invitation from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)2 . The report was prepared in cooperation with the preparation of the other report under the IPCC National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme (IPCC-NGGIP), on Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (GPG-LULUCF). The report discusses: Alternative definitions and provides possible framework definitions for countries to consider; Methodological options to inventory emissions from degradation and devegetation activities; Approaches to reporting and documentation; and Implications of methodological and definitional options for accounting under the provisions of Article 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol (including issues of scale, costs and accuracy).
Date:
2003
Creator:
Penman, Jim; Wagner, Fabian; Tanabe, Kiyoto; Ngara, Todd; Miwa, Kyoko; Krug, Thelma et al.
Object Type:
Book
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Annual Report on the Environment and the Sound Material-Cycle Society in Japan 2007
The annual report summarized the FY2006 status of the environment and the establishment of a sound material-cycle Society in Japan. It provides an overview of Global Warming and the technologies for mitigating Global Warming. The report also describes the government's role in environmental conservation, and the formation of a sound material-cycle society.
Date:
2007
Creator:
Japan. Kankyōsho
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Arctic Flora and Fauna: Status and Conservation
What is the overall state of the Arctic environment? The aim of this report is to answer the many aspects of this seemingly straightforward question. Although several national and international efforts have looked at parts of the Arctic, this is the first attempt to assess the state of Arctic flora and fauna as a whole.
Date:
June 11, 2001
Creator:
Program for the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF)
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Annual Report on the Environment and the Sound Material-Cycle Society in Japan 2008
This document reports the global and Japanese trends in creating a low carbon, material-cycle society. It also describes the policy measures taken by Japan towards establishing such a society.
Date:
June 2008
Creator:
Japan. Kankyōshō.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
A Curious Pacific Wave
This brief article discusses about a massive swell of water that was buffeting South America. Kelvin waves are warm bumps in the Pacific Ocean, characterized by a gentle yet massive swell of warm water. Usually not much happens when a Kelvin wave arrives -- beach combers experience a bit of extra rain, perhaps, and slightly warmer surf. Nevertheless, scientists pay careful attention to them because these gentle waves occasionally herald something far more powerful: the next El Niño.
Date:
March 5, 2002
Creator:
Science@NASA
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Plausible Biological Cause For Major Climate Events
Scientific news article about Snowball Earth eras. These are times when ice periodically covered the globe, and the era called the Cambrian Explosion, which produced the first fossils of almost all major categories of animals living today.
Date:
August 10, 2001
Creator:
Kennedy, Barbara
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Planning Climate and Global Change Research: A Review of the Draft U.S. Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan
A draft strategic plan for the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) was released to the scientific community and the public in November 2002. At the request of the CCSP, the National Academies formed a committee to review this draft strategic plan; the results of this review are reported herein.
Date:
2003
Creator:
Committee to Review the U.S. Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library