NASA Analysis Confirms 2023 as Warmest Year on Record

Lee esta nota de prensa en español aquí.

Earth’s average surface temperature in 2023 was the warmest on record, according to an analysis by NASA. Global temperatures last year were around 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASA’s baseline period (1951-1980), scientists from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York reported.

“NASA and NOAA’s global temperature report confirms what billions of people around the world experienced last year; we are facing a climate crisis,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “From extreme heat, to wildfires, to rising sea levels, we can see our Earth is changing. There’s still more work to be done, but President Biden and communities across America are taking more action than ever to reduce climate risks and help communities become more resilient – and NASA will continue to use our vantage point of space to bring critical climate data back down to Earth that is understandable and accessible for all people. NASA and the Biden-Harris Administration are working to protect our home planet and its people, for this generation – and the next.”

In 2023, hundreds of millions of people around the world experienced extreme heat, and each month from June through December set a global record for the respective month. July was the hottest month ever recorded. Overall, Earth was about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 1.4 degrees Celsius) warmer in 2023 than the late 19th-century average, when modern record-keeping began.

“The exceptional warming that we’re experiencing is not something we’ve seen before in human history,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of GISS. “It’s driven primarily by our fossil fuel emissions, and we’re seeing the impacts in heat waves, intense rainfall, and coastal flooding.”

Though scientists have conclusive evidence that the planet’s long-term warming trend is driven by human activity, they still examine other phenomena that can affect yearly or multi-year changes in climate such as El Niño, aerosols and pollution, and volcanic eruptions.

Typically, the largest source of year-to-year variability is the El Niño – Southern Oscillation ocean climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean. The pattern has two phases – El Niño and La Niña – when sea surface temperatures along the equator switch between warmer, average, and cooler temperatures. From 2020-2022, the Pacific Ocean saw three consecutive La Niña events, which tend to cool global temperatures. In May 2023, the ocean transitioned from La Niña to El Niño, which often coincides with the hottest years on record.

However, the record temperatures in the second half of 2023 occurred before the peak of the current El Niño event. Scientists expect to see the biggest impacts of El Niño in February, March, and April.

Scientists have also investigated possible impacts from the January 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai undersea volcano, which blasted water vapor and fine particles, or aerosols, into the stratosphere. A recent study found that the volcanic aerosols – by reflecting sunlight away from Earth’s surface – led to an overall slight cooling of less than 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 0.1 degrees Celsius) in the Southern Hemisphere following the eruption.

“Even with occasional cooling factors like volcanoes or aerosols, we will continue to break records as long as greenhouse gas emissions keep going up,” Schmidt said. “And, unfortunately, we just set a new record for greenhouse gas emissions again this past year.”

“The record-setting year of 2023 underscores the significance of urgent and continued actions to address climate change,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “Recent legislation has delivered the U.S. government’s largest-ever climate investment, including billions to strengthen America’s resilience to the increasing impacts of the climate crisis. As an agency focused on studying our changing climate, NASA’s fleet of Earth observing satellites will continue to provide critical data of our home planet at scale to help all people make informed decisions.”

Open Science in Action

NASA assembles its temperature record using surface air temperature data collected from tens of thousands of meteorological stations, as well as sea surface temperature data acquired by ship- and buoy-based instruments. This data is analyzed using methods that account for the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and for urban heating effects that could skew the calculations.

Independent analyses by NOAA and the Hadley Centre (part of the United Kingdom Met Office) concluded the global surface temperatures for 2023 were the highest since modern record-keeping began. These scientists use much of the same temperature data in their analyses but use different methodologies. Although rankings can differ slightly between the records, they are in broad agreement and show the same ongoing long-term warming in recent decades.

Building on a half century of research, observations, and models, the Biden-Harris Administration including NASA and several federal partners recently launched the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center to make critical climate data readily available to decisionmakers and citizens. The center supports collaboration across U.S. government agencies and the non-profit and private sectors to make air-, ground-, and space-borne data and resources available online.

NASA’s full dataset of global surface temperatures through 2023, as well as details with code of how NASA scientists conducted the analysis, are publicly available from GISS. GISS is a NASA laboratory managed by the Earth Sciences Division of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.

For more information on NASA, visit: https://www.nasa.gov.

-end-

Karen Fox / Katherine Rohloff
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.fox@nasa.gov / Katherine.a.rohloff@nasa.gov

Peter Jacobs
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md
301-286-0535
peter.jacobs@nasa.gov

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…
Roxana Bardan

Verdant Farmlands of Simsbury, Connecticut

The Operational Land Imager-2 on Landsat 9 captured this image of Simsbury, Connecticut on September 15, 2022. Martin Luther King Jr. and other students from Morehouse College worked summers on a tobacco farm, Meadowood, in Simsbury in 1944 and 1947 to earn money for tuition. King’s time in Connecticut impacted his outlook and trajectory as a minister and civil rights activist, according to King scholars.

Text Credit: Adam Voiland

Image Credit: NASA/Joshua Stevens; USGS

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…
Monika Luabeya

NASA Volunteers Shine at American Astronomical Society Meeting

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) met in New Orleans this week, attended by thousands of astronomers and reporters, and NASA volunteers were in the spotlight.

• Austin Rothermich began his journey as a NASA volunteer when he was an undergraduate at the University of Central Florida. He spoke at an AAS press conference about 89 brown dwarfs discovered via the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 citizen science project. These brown dwarfs—Jupiter-sized balls of gas that never turned into stars—are special because they are ultracool, and because they appear to be orbiting stars and other objects, which makes it possible to learn much more about them.

• At the same conference, Dr. Jackie Faherty from the American Museum of Natural History announced another breakthrough discovery from NASA’s Backyard Worlds team: a brown dwarf that appears to have aurorae! This remarkable object was discovered by NASA volunteer Dan Caselden.

• Then, later in the week, Caselden himself was awarded the Chambliss amateur achievement award from the AAS for his work as a NASA volunteer. This is Caselden’s second major prize in the last four months!

• Zooniverse, a key NASA’s partner, made a big announcement at the meeting. The Zooniverse citizen science platform has now surpassed 2.5 million participants, 750 million classifications, 400 publications, and 20 NASA-funded projects. Dr. Laura Trouille highlighted NASA’s Daily Minor Planet project in her presentation.

• As if that weren’t enough, this same conference saw the launch of NASA’s new Burst Chaser project. This project aims to unveil the largest explosions in the universe! You can join the fun here.

Wow! Big congratulations to everyone involved!

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…

50 Years Ago: Skylab 4 Astronauts Begin Record-Breaking Third Month in Space

In space since their launch on Nov. 16, 1973, Skylab 4 astronauts Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson, and William R. Pogue began the new year of 1974 roughly halfway through their planned 84-day mission. By the end of January, the three rookies held the records for the longest single space flight and the most cumulative time spent in space. Mission managers monitored the station’s and the astronauts’ health and weekly concurred with extending the mission to its full duration as the astronauts accomplished a record number of science observations of the Sun, the Earth, Comet Kohoutek, and themselves. Carr and Gibson completed the final Skylab spacewalk to bring inside external science experiments and the last film cassettes for return to Earth. They began preparations for their own return to Earth.

Left: Image of the Sun’s corona taken by the Apollo Telescope Mount spectroheliometer instrument. Middle: Skylab 4 astronaut Edward G. Gibson’s sketch of Comet Kohoutek, based on his observations. Right: Gerald P. Carr adjusts the Multispectral Photographic Camera System, part of the Earth Resources Experiment Package.

Following the Dec. 30 exchange of information and ideas during the space-to-ground conference regarding the crew’s scheduling, the astronauts felt that the second six weeks of their mission transpired much more smoothly than the first six. They accomplished all their tasks and even more, and no longer felt rushed or like they made mistakes. Taking some time out on their off-duty days, they enjoyed weightlessness in their spacious home. On Jan. 1, 1974, Carr, Gibson, and Pogue celebrated the coming of the new year, the first crew to observe that holiday in space along with Thanksgiving and Christmas. No American astronaut would repeat that for 23 years, until John E. Blaha‘s four-month stay aboard the Mir space station in 1996-7. On Jan. 10, Carr, Gibson, and Pogue enjoyed a day off from their regular science and maintenance tasks, with planners scheduling only one third of their time, freeing them to pursue their own activities. On the ground, mission managers held the 56-day review of the mission and based on the crew’s health, the station’s condition, and the amount of consumables, declared the mission go for 84 days, although strictly speaking, managers and flight surgeons approved the mission’s extension one week at a time.

A little levity in weightlessness. Left: Skylab 4 astronaut Gerald P. Carr conducts an “Upper Body Negative Pressure” test on one of his fellow crew members. Middle: Edward G. Gibson performs an in-depth inspection of his spacesuit. Right: Carr demonstrates his strength in weightlessness by “supporting” William R. Pogue on one finger.

During January, Carr, Gibson, and Pogue surpassed all previous human spaceflight endurance records. On Jan. 4, they surpassed Charles “Pete” Conrad’s 49-day mark for cumulative time in space – what took Conrad four missions to accumulate, the Skylab 4 trio accomplished in just one. Chief astronaut Donald K. Slayton congratulated them, saying “As far as we’re concerned down here, you’re doing an outstanding job all the way. Just keep up the good work.” On Jan. 14, they surpassed the Skylab 3 crew’s 59-day mark for the longest single spaceflight, and 11 days later passed Alan L. Bean’s record of 69 days for cumulative time that he had accrued over his two missions. NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher and Deputy Administrator George M. Low sent congratulatory messages to the astronauts for breaking the old records and “especially for the outstanding work you have done and are continuing to do in the field of space science, space applications, and in learning about man’s reaction to space.” After receiving the congratulations, Carr told capsule communicator (capcom) Richard H. Truly that records are made to be broken and sooner or later someone would break theirs. Indeed, four years later Soviet cosmonauts Yuri V. Romanenko and Georgi M. Grechko did so, completing a 96-day mission aboard Salyut-6.

Left: Gerald P. Carr exercises on the Thornton treadmill. Middle: Edward G. Gibson performs a session on the rotating chair to test his vestibular system’s response to weightlessness. Right: Gibson, left, performs an oral exam on William R. Pogue.

Left: Gerald P. Carr, left, monitors Edward G. Gibson during a Lower Body Negative Pressure test of his cardiovascular system. Middle: Gibson, right, prepares to draw a blood sample from Carr for a medical experiment. Right: William R. Pogue works with the Small Mass Measurement Device.

As they entered the record-breaking third and final month of their mission, Carr, Gibson, and Pogue continued to adhere to the strict regimen of 1.5 hours of daily exercise using a bicycle ergometer and the Thornton treadmill. They continued the comprehensive biomedical investigations to evaluate the effects of long-duration space flight on the human body. Using the eight instruments mounted in the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM), Carr, Gibson, and Pogue continued their observations of the Sun. On Jan. 21, thanks to his dedicated vigilance at the ATM instrument panel, for the first time ever Gibson observed a solar flare from its inception until its expiration. His observations added greatly to astrophysicists’ understanding of solar flares. In a break with the tradition of having only the capcom speak to the astronauts in orbit, the Skylab 4 crew held several space-to-ground conferences with some of the scientists associated with various experiments. Beginning with the televised conference on Dec. 28 with astronomer Luboš Kohoutek, discoverer of the comet that bears his name, they held conferences with several of the ATM investigators, usually on the crew’s off duty days.

Left: Gerald P. Carr changes samples in the Materials Processing Facility. Middle: Edward G. Gibson, left, William R. Pogue, and Carr enjoy a meal together. Right: Gibson prepares to take his weekly shower.

The astronauts continued to observe Comet Kohoutek through January. Because the ATM instruments could no longer see the comet as it moved away from the Sun, they used binoculars for observations, and Gibson drew detailed sketches of the comet as its tail changed shape. Carr and Pogue completed the tests of the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit, a precursor of the Manned Maneuvering Unit used during the space shuttle program to retrieve satellites, “flying” it inside the large dome of the workshop. On Jan. 23, Pogue celebrated his 44^th birthday, only the third person to celebrate a birthday in space. That same day, the three major television networks announced they would not be broadcasting live television of the Skylab 4 splashdown, the first time since live TV coverage began with the Gemini VI splashdown in December 1965. They felt the event not newsworthy enough to cover. On Jan. 31, Carr, Gibson, and Pogue held their second and final televised press conference. Capcom Truly read the questions submitted in advance by reporters and the astronauts gave their responses. Although time ran out to ask questions submitted by sixth grade students as part of a class project, the astronauts took time later to answer them.

A selection of Skylab 4 astronaut photography of the Earth. Left: Lakes Erie, left, and Ontario. Middle left: The Rio de Plata separates Argentina, left, and Uruguay. Middle right: The Japanese island of Kyushu. Right: New Zealand.

Skylab’s high 50-degree orbital inclination allowed its crews to observe and photograph parts of the Earth not previously seen by astronauts in orbit. They observed pre-selected sites using a suite of six instruments in the Earth Resources Experiment Package and photographed pre-selected sites and targets of opportunity using handheld cameras.

A selection of photographs from the final Skylab spacewalk. Left: Edward G. Gibson near the station’s airlock. Middle left: Gerald P. Carr at the Apollo Telescope Mount to retrieve the last film cassettes. Middle right: The second sunshield deployed by the Skylab 3 crew showing evidence of discoloration. Right: The Apollo Command and Service Module.

On Feb. 3, Carr and Gibson stepped outside their space station for the fourth and final spacewalk of their mission. The primary tasks for the 5-hour, 19-minute excursion involved the retrieval of the final film cassettes from the ATM as well as scientific instruments and samples from the lab’s exterior. During the three Skylab missions, the crews exposed and returned to Earth nearly 30 film cassettes, providing scientists with more than 150,000 photographs. The next American spacewalk would not occur for another nine years, during the STS-6 mission in April 1983. During their stay aboard Skylab, Carr, Gibson, and Pogue accumulated 22 hours 22 minutes of spacewalking time, an Earth orbital single mission record that stood until 1991. After finishing the spacewalk, they turned their attention to preparing for their return to Earth five days later.

For more insight into the Skylab 4 mission, read Carr’s, Gibson’s, and Pogue’s oral histories with the JSC History Office.

To be continued …

With special thanks to Ed Hengeveld for his expert contributions on Skylab imagery.

Explore More

6 min read

10 Years Ago: The First Operational Cygnus Cargo Mission to the Space Station

Article


2 days ago

5 min read

NASA’s Deep Space Network Turns 60 and Prepares for the Future

Article


3 weeks ago

13 min read

Celebrating the Holiday Season in Space

Article


3 weeks ago

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…
Kelli Mars