Observations of greenhouse gases as climate indicators

Lori Bruhwiler, Sourish Basu, James H. Butler, Abhishek Chatterjee, Ed Dlugokencky, Melissa A. Kenney, Allison McComiskey, Stephen A. Montzka, Diane Stanitski

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

44 Scopus citations

Abstract

Humans have significantly altered the energy balance of the Earth’s climate system mainly not only by extracting and burning fossil fuels but also by altering the biosphere and using halocarbons. The 3rd US National Climate Assessment pointed to a need for a system of indicators of climate and global change based on long-term data that could be used to support assessments and this led to the development of the National Climate Indicators System (NCIS). Here we identify a representative set of key atmospheric indicators of changes in atmospheric radiative forcing due to greenhouse gases (GHGs), and we evaluate atmospheric composition measurements, including non-CO2 GHGs for use as climate change indicators in support of the US National Climate Assessment. GHG abundances and their changes over time can provide valuable information on the success of climate mitigation policies, as well as insights into possible carbon-climate feedback processes that may ultimately affect the success of those policies. To ensure that reliable information for assessing GHG emission changes can be provided on policy-relevant scales, expanded observational efforts are needed. Furthermore, the ability to detect trends resulting from changing emissions requires a commitment to supporting long-term observations. Long-term measurements of greenhouse gases, aerosols, and clouds and related climate indicators used with a dimming/brightening index could provide a foundation for quantifying forcing and its attribution and reducing error in existing indicators that do not account for complicated cloud processes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number12
JournalClimatic Change
Volume165
Issue number1-2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Bruhwiler, Butler, Montzka, Dlugencky, and Stanitski are employed by the NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory. The work of Chatterjee was supported by funding from the NASA Grant/Cooperative Agreement NNX17AD69A and 80NSSC20K0006. Kenney was supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grants NA09NES4400006 and NA14NES4320003 (Cooperative Climate and Satellites-CICS) at the University of Maryland/ESSIC.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply.

Keywords

  • Anthropogenic emissions
  • Atmospheric composition
  • Greenhouse gases
  • Radiative forcing

PubMed: MeSH publication types

  • Journal Article

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Observations of greenhouse gases as climate indicators'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this