Featured GALLERY: Climate Change Data (roll curser over pic, go to "Full Gallery")

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler" - Einstein

The science of climate change and global warming is vast. The 1,000 page 2007 IPCC Science report, contents BELOW, provides the most authoritative compendia of professional research. This is updated by the recent 2009 Copenhagen report.

An excellent accessible scientific resource is RealClimate, run by professional climatologists.

• See the Models sub-topic

• See the DATA sub-topic

• See the Significant Papers sub-topic

• Click for a list of acronymns

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Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis

Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and
H.L. Miller (eds.).

CambridgeUniversity Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 996 pp.

Contents

• Front Matter

• Summary for Policymakers

• Technical Summary

• Frequently Asked Questions (extracted from chapters below)

• Chapter 1 Historical Overview of Climate Change Science

• Chapter 2 Changes in Atmospheric Constituents and in Radiative Forcing

• Chapter 3 Observations: Surface and Atmospheric Climate Change

• Supplementary Material: Appendix 3.B. Techniques, Error Estimation and Measurement Systems (including references)

• Chapter 4 Observations: Changes in Snow, Ice and Frozen Ground

• Chapter 5 Observations: Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level

• Chapter 6 Palaeoclimate

• Supplementary Material: Appendix 6.A. Glossary for Terms Specific to Chapter 6

• Chapter 7 Couplings Between Changes in the Climate System and Biogeochemistry

• Chapter 8 Climate Models and their Evaluation

• Supplementary Material: Appendix 8.A. Supplementary Figures and Tables

• Chapter 9 Understanding and Attributing Climate Change

• Supplementary Material: Appendices & References

• Chapter 10 Global Climate Projections

• Supplementary Material: Supplementary Details, Tables & Figures

• Figures Showing Individual Model Results for Different Climate Variables

• Chapter 11 Regional Climate Projections

• Supplementary Material: Appendix 11. Tables, Figures, References

Annexes: (1)Glossary, (2)Authors, (3)Reviewers, (4)Acronyms

Index

Uncertainty Guidance Note for the Fourth Assessment Report

Errata for the Working Group I Fourth Assessment Report

Figures

Summary for Policymakers & Technical Summary 

Arabic - Chinese - French - Russian - Spanish

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From RealClimate, here is useful list of acronyms used in the science of climate change:

• ACC= Anthropogenic Climate Change

• AGU= American Geophysical Union

• AGW= Anthropogenic Global Warming or (less often) Atmospheric Gravity Waves

• AMO=Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation

• AMS= American Meteorological Society

• AO= Arctic oscillation (very similar to NAO)

• AOGCM= Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Model

• APS= American Physical Society

• AR4= Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC)

• Argo float= Ocean temperature measuring device

• AVE= Atmospheric Vortex Engine

• BAU= Business As Usual

• CCD= Carbonate Compensation Depth = depth at which carbonates dissolve in the ocean

• CCN= Cloud Condensation Nuclei

• CCS= Carbon Capture Storage

• CET= Central England Temperature

• CFR= Climate Field Reconstruction

• CME= Coronal Mass Ejections

• CRF= Cosmic Ray Flux

• CTD= Conductivity/Temperature/Depth. Probe for measuring ocean conditions

• CWC= Cloud (liquid) Water Content

• DTR= Diurnal Temperature Range

• ECS= Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (Charney sensitivity)

• EMR= Electromagnetic Radiation

• ENSO= El Niño-Southern Oscillation

• EROI= Energy Return on Investment

• ESS= Earth System Sensitivity = Whole system response to radiative forcing

• FOI= Freedom of Information Act

• GCM= Global Circulation/Climate Model (AOGCM)

• GCR= Galactic Cosmic Rays

• GFD= Geophysical Fluid Dynamics

• GFDL= Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (NOAA)

• GHE= Greenhouse Effect

• GHG= Greenhouse Gas

• GIS= Greenland Ice Sheet

• GISS= Goddard Institute for Space Studies (part of NASA)

• GMST= Global Mean Surface Temperature (anomaly)

• GRL= Geophysical Research Letters (an AGU journal)

• GWP= Global Warming Potential

• HEV= Hybrid Electric Vehicle

• ICE= Internal Combustion Engine

• IERS= International Earth Rotation & Reference Systems Service

• IJOC= International Journal of Climatology

• IOC= Intergovernmental Oceanographic commission

• IPCC= Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

• ISW= Ice Shelf Water

• ITCZ= Intertropical Convergence Zone

• JGR= Journal of Geophysical Research (an AGU journal)

• LGM= Last Glacial Maximum (about 20,000 years ago)

• LIA= Little Ice Age

• LTE= Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium

• MDR= Main Development Region (for Atlantic hurricanes)

• MOC= Meridional Overturning Circulation (ocean)

• MWP= Medieval Warm Period (MCA is probably more apt)

• MCA= Medieval Climate Anomaly

• NAO= North Atlantic Oscillation

• NH= Northern Hemisphere

• OHC= Oceanic Heat Content

• OLR= (also OLW) Outgoing Longwave Radiation

• PCA= Principal Component Analysis

• PDF= Probability Density Function

• PDO= Pacific Decadal Oscillation

• PETM= Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum

• PHEV= Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle

• PNAS=Proceeding of the National Academies of Science (a journal)

• RCS= Regional Curve Standardization (method for processing tree ring data from different trees)

• RH= Relative Humidity

• RMS= Royal Meteorological Society (or Root Mean Square)

• SAM= Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode (positive= wind belt around Antarctic stronger= colder)

• SAR= Second Assessment Report (IPCC)

• SLR= Sea level rise

• SOI= Southern Oscillation Index (see ENSO)

• SPE= Solar Proton Event

• SPM= Summary for Policy Makers (usually with respect to IPCC reports)

• SRM= Solar Radiation Management

• SSM= Standard Solar Model

• SST= Sea Surface Temperature

• STP= Standard Temperature and Pressure (a reference for physical properties)

• TAR= Third Assessment Report (of the IPCC)

• TC= Tropical Cyclone (any hurricane)

• TCR= Transient Climate Response

• THC= Thermohaline Circulation (that driven by temp and salinity effects)

• TOA= Top-of-the-atmosphere

• TSI= Total Solar Irradiance

• WAIS= West Antarctic Ice Sheet

• WMO= World Meteorological Organization

• XBT= eXpendable Bathy-Thermograph (deep ocean temperature measuring devices)