The year 2005 was the warmest year in over a century, according to NASA scientists studying temperature data from around the world.

Climatologists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City noted that the highest global annual average surface temperature in more than a century was recorded in their analysis for the 2005 calendar year.

Some other research groups that study climate change rank 2005 as the second warmest year, based on comparisons through November. The primary difference among the analyses, according to the NASA scientists, is the inclusion of the Arctic in the NASA analysis. Although there are few weather stations in the Arctic, the available data indicate that 2005 was unusually warm in the Arctic.

In order to figure out whether the Earth is cooling or warming, the scientists use temperature data from weather stations on land, satellite measurements of sea surface temperature since 1982, and data from ships for earlier years.

Previously, the warmest year of the century was 1998, when a strong El Nino, a warm water event in the eastern Pacific Ocean, added warmth to global temperatures. However, what’s significant, regardless of whether 2005 is first or second warmest, is that global warmth has returned to about the level of 1998 without the help of an El Nino.

The result indicates that a strong underlying warming trend is continuing. Global warming since the middle 1970s is now about 0.6 degrees Celsius (C) or about 1 degree Fahrenheit (F). Total warming in the past century is about 0.8° C or about 1.4° F.

“The five warmest years over the last century occurred in the last eight years,” said James Hansen, director of NASA GISS. They stack up as follows: the warmest was 2005, then 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Over the past 30 years, the Earth has warmed by 0.6° C or 1.08° F. Over the past 100 years, it has warmed by 0.8° C or 1.44° F.

Current warmth seems to be occurring nearly everywhere at the same time and is largest at high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Over the last 50 years, the largest annual and seasonal warmings have occurred in Alaska, Siberia and the Antarctic Peninsula. Most ocean areas have warmed. Because these areas are remote and far away from major cities, it is clear to climatologists that the warming is not due to the influence of pollution from urban areas.

Original press release: 2005 Warmest Year in Over a Century (NASA)

High-level international talks have begun in Sydney about the best way to tackle global warming.

Senior officials and ministers from Australia, Japan, the United States, China, South Korea and India are taking part in the two-day Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate meeting (AP6).

Read the full article: Summit open for business (The Age)

Related article: Climate change bloc may grow to rival Kyoto (Sydney Morning Herald)

Today at 21.00 CEST Mr Yuri Bakhvalov, First Deputy Director General of the Khrunichev Space Centre on behalf of the Russian State Commission officially confirmed that the launch of CryoSat ended in a failure due to an anomaly in the launch sequence and expressed his regret to ESA and all partners involved.

Preliminary analysis of the telemetry data indicates that the first stage performed nominally. The second stage performed nominally until main engine cut-off was to occur. Due to a missing command from the onboard flight control system the main engine continued to operate until depletion of the remaining fuel.

As a consequence, the separation of the second stage from upper stage did not occur. Thus, the combined stack of the two stages and the CryoSat satellite fell into the nominal drop zone north of Greenland close to the North Pole into high seas with no consequences to populated areas.

An investigating commission by the Russian State authorities has been established to further analyze the reasons for the failure, results are expected within the next weeks. This commission will work in close cooperation with a failure investigation board consisting of Eurockot, ESA and Khrunichev representatives.

This information is released at the same time by Eurockot and ESA.

Original press release: CryoSat Mission lost due to launch failure (ESA) 

Open University researchers have uncovered startling new evidence about an extreme period of a sudden, fatal dose of global warming some 180 million years ago during the time of the dinosaurs. The scientists’ findings could provide vital clues about climate change happening today and in the future.

The OU Department of Earth Sciences team, PhD student Dave Kemp and supervisors Drs. Angela Coe and Anthony Cohen, along with Dr. Lorenz Schwark of the University of Cologne, discovered evidence suggesting that vast amounts of methane gas were released to the atmosphere in three massive ‘methane burps’ or pulses. The addition of methane, a greenhouse gas, to the atmosphere had a severe impact on the environment, warming Earth about 10 C, and resulting in the extinction of a large number of species on land and in the oceans.

Dr Angela Coe says: “We’ve known about this event for a few years through earlier work by our team and others, but there’s been a great deal of uncertainty about its precise size, duration, and underlying cause. What our present study shows is that this methane release was not just one event, but 3 consecutive pulses. Importantly, our data demonstrate that each individual pulse was very rapid. Also, whilst the methane release was very quick, we’ve found that the recovery took much longer, occurring over a few hundred thousand years”.

The methane came from gas hydrate, a frozen mixture of water and methane found in huge quantities on the seabed. This hydrate suddenly melted, allowing the methane to escape. The OU researchers based their findings on geochemical analyses of mudrocks that are preserved along the Yorkshire coast near Whitby, UK, and date from the Jurassic Period of geological time.

Dave Kemp, whose PhD is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), says: “The methane was released because slight wobbles in the Earth’s orbit periodically bring our planet closer to the Sun, warming the oceans sufficiently to melt the vast reserves of hydrate. We believe that this effect was compounded by warming from greenhouse gases from volcanoes. After the methane was released into the atmosphere from the seabed it reacted rapidly with oxygen to form carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is also a powerful greenhouse gas that persists in the atmosphere for many hundreds of years, and it was this gas which caused such a massive global warming effect”.

Dr Anthony Cohen adds: “One of the most important aspects of the study is that it provides an accurate timescale for how the Earth, and life, reacted to a sudden increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Today we are releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, primarily through the burning of fossil fuels. It is possible that the rate at which carbon dioxide is being added to the atmosphere now actually outstrips the rate at which it was added 180 million years ago. Given that the effects were so devastating then, it is extremely important to understand the details of past events in order to better comprehend present-day climate change. With this information, we are better informed about what action needs to be taken to mitigate or avoid some of the potential detrimental future effects”.

Original press release: Earth’s Wobble Burps (NASA - Open University)

ESA’s Envisat satellite has been continuously observing the Earth with a suite of ten instruments for the last three and a half years. A major workshop is about to bring together users of Envisat’s two most complementary sensors: MERIS, which acquires multispectral imagery of the planet’s ocean, land and atmosphere, and AATSR, a radiometer measuring global surface and cloud temperatures down to a fraction of a degree.

The five-day MERIS/AATSR Workshop is scheduled to take place in ESRIN, the European Centre for Earth Observation in Frascati overlooking Rome, from Monday 26 September. More than 200 Principal Investigators from over 30 countries, including ESA’s 17 member states and Canada, as well as India, New Zealand, Nigeria and Japan are expected to attend. There will be 90 presentations during the Workshop and around 65 posters on show. The Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) takes visible-light images of the precise ‘colour’ of the ocean and coastal zones, enabling determination of the biological and sediment loading of the water.

The instrument also acquires land-based images showing land use and vegetation cover. Because these images are acquired in up to 15 spectral bands, they provide additional environmental information such as chlorophyll levels, plant health and local geology. MERIS can also monitor the distribution of atmospheric aerosols and otherwise invisible water vapour concentrations.

The Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) also has a visible-light imaging capability for land surfaces and atmospheric clouds and aerosols, but its view also extends further than that of MERIS into near and thermal-infrared wavelengths.

Working day and night AATSR measures global sea surface temperature (SST) to an accuracy of 0.3º K, constantly extending a 14-year satellite dataset commenced by predecessor ATSR instruments flown aboard ERS-1 and 2. The top two metres of the ocean alone contain more energy than the entire atmosphere, and so this long, continuous time-series of SST data is important for predicting the magnitude of climate change. AATSR also delivers land-based images, and is especially sensitive to soil moisture, vegetation extent and anomalous heat sources such as volcanoes or the central cores of forest fires.

AATSR is also used to study clouds and aerosol concentrations in the atmosphere. It has a dual view design which means it can takes forward as well as nadir-looking images. Because its twin views of the same scene pass through different atmospheric path lengths, the instrument has an enhanced ability to estimate and correct for distortion effects from the atmosphere – information which could potentially be applied to improve MERIS data quality in turn.

“Following on from a successful MERIS event in November 2003, this Workshop is an opportunity for us to have a dialogue with the scientific community,” explains Workshop organiser Peter Regner of ESA. “The event will begin with updates on the status of the spacecraft and instruments, data quality and dissemination. The emphasis then splits to us receiving ideas from the users – in particular what can be done with the MERIS and AATSR datasets. Research utilising data from one or both sensors will be presented over a series of thematic sessions.

“We are particularly interested in stimulating discussion on what can be done by merging data from the two instruments. For MERIS products over land we still need to improve our algorithms to deal with the effects of atmospheric aerosols, and here it is possible that merging MERIS with AATSR data could be a way forward.”

Researchers already combine results from the two sensors in many cases. While MERIS detects smoke and burned areas from wildfires, AATSR can identify central hot spots. The spread of colourful phytoplankton blooms across the face of the sea can be better forecast utilising SST data. And merged optical and thermal infrared views of the sea and the clouds above it give an enhanced understanding of the dynamics of storms and hurricanes.

The workshop will include training sessions for using the software tools used to process images from both sensors - known as the Basic ERS & Envisat AATSR and MERIS (BEAM) toolbox. An additional half-day course will cover how to programme new processing algorithms using the BEAM Application Programming Interface as a basis.

Original press release: MERIS/AATSR Workshop: focus on Envisat sensors measuring heat and light (ESA)

As the United Nations summit to review progress of the Millennium Development Goals draws to a close in New York, millions of volunteers around the world will take to their local parks, waterways, streets and forests in a bid to clean up the environment and promote sustainable living.

625 members, mobilising over 35 million volunteers from 115 countries, will take part in this year’s Clean Up the World Weekend, celebrated globally on 16-18 September.

The campaign, held in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has grown steadily since the inaugural event in 1993 and has recorded an estimated 18% increase in participation this year.

Activities will range from cleaning up small villages to overhauling entire countries. Across many regions communities will also implement recycling and educational programmes.

“Clean Up the World is an outstanding example of sustainable development in action with so many of our volunteer creating greener cities and communities for us all to live in,” said Ian Kiernan, Chairman and Founder of Clean Up the World. “Our volunteers transcend geographical, religious and political barriers to clean up, fix up and conserve our precious environment.”

“Clean Up the World recognizes the importance of the environment to our everyday lives,” said UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer. “The environmental awareness that is growing worldwide—from the grassroots to governments—is due in no small way to the efforts of organizations such as Clean Up the World. At the heart of the campaign is a simple message: what we do matters. We all can—and must—take responsibility for our actions, and take the future of our planet into our own hands.”

In Malaysia, close to 2,000 volunteers will remove rubbish from the famed Terengganu beaches on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula. Ian Kiernan will be assisting volunteers in removing the plastic rubbish, petrol cans and nets that are obstructing access to nesting grounds for critically endangered turtles.

Active environmentalist and entertainer Bette Midler, a new ambassador of the campaign, together with her team at the New York Restoration Project will be incorporating recycling and clean up activities into the annual Little Red Lighthouse Festival in Fort Washington Park in New York City.

From the commercial center Côté Béru to the pristine Loire Valley in France, French Sailing Federation, France Nature Environment, and Clean Up the World’s global Patron Fondation d’Entreprise Veolia Environnement, will lead thousands of volunteers in clean up activities across the country.

In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Tony Blair recently pledged his support of a clean up event in Sedgefield, “I would encourage the officers of Sedgefield Borough Council to seek out other partners in this country and around the world to join in and support this worthwhile initiative. It’s our world, and both individually and collectively we all have a responsibility to Clean up the World.”

UNEP, through its Regional Office for Africa, works to restore clean water to Nairobi’s riverine system and will coordinate clean ups to promote a healthier environment to Nairobi residents.

Hundreds of volunteers will clean up and plant trees throughout the “Jardín de la Reina”, the second largest National Park in Cuba.

Over 2,500 girl guides will clean up the beaches, parks and historical places around the 33 Bahrain islands situated in the Arabian Gulf.

Communities are encouraged to register with Clean Up the World by visiting www.cleanuptheworld.org. Members receive information and materials to assist with the promotion and implementation of environmental activities.

Original press release: Environmental Sustainability In Action – Nations Unite for a Greener World (UNEP)