This animation shows how carbon dioxide molecules act as greenhouse gases by absorbing and re-emitting photons of infrared radiation.
The climate where you live is called regional climate. Global climate is a description of the climate of a planet as a whole, with all the regional differences averaged.
Resource Type: Information
When climate conditions, such as temperature and precipitation, vary from the expected averages this is called climate variability. Natural changes in the Earth system can cause climate variability, but scientists are concerned about climate variability resulting from human-caused climate change.
Resource Type: Information
The direct measures of climate tend to be mostly the same as the measurable aspects of weather - temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind speed and direction - only over much longer periods of time.
Peruvian fishing boats used to return to shore each day heavy with anchovies, but in 1972 the boats returned to shore with empty nets.
Resource Type: Information
Learn how the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate fluctuation affects weather around the world.
Resource Type: Information
Accounting for all the energy that enters and leaves the Earth system helps us understand how the planet maintains a habitable temperature. This accounting of energy is known as Earth’s radiation budget.
Resource Type: Information
Supercomputers are revolutionizing how scientists study the Earth System and Climate. As computers become faster over time, models of our planet and its atmosphere can be more complex.
Earth is warming. While there is some variability year-to-year, the most recent years have been the warmest on record. Learn how Earth's temperature is taken and what record heat means.