In recent years, electricity production from wind turbines and photovoltaic systems has grown significantly in Germany. To determine the multiple impa…In recent years, electricity production from wind turbines and photovoltaic systems has grown significantly in Germany. To determine the multiple impacts of rising variable renewable energies on an increasingly decentralized power supply, spatially and temporally resolved data on the power generation are necessary or, at least, very helpful. Because of extensive data protection regulations in Germany, especially for smaller operators of renewable power plants, such detailed data are not freely accessible. In order to fill this information gap, simulation models employing publicly available plant and weather data can be used. The numerical simulations are performed for the year 2016 and consider an ensemble of almost 1.64 million variable renewable power plants in Germany. The obtained time series achieve a high agreement with measured feed-in patterns over the investigated year. Such disaggregated power generation data are very advantageous to analyze the energy transition in Germany on a spatiotemporally resolved scale. In addition, this study also derives meaningful key figures for such an analysis and presents the generated results as detailed maps at county level. To the best of our knowledge, such highly resolved electricity data of variable renewables for the entire German region have never been shown before.more
Incoming solar radiation is the most important factor shaping climate system on Earth and the main element of the surface heat balance. The main aim o…Incoming solar radiation is the most important factor shaping climate system on Earth and the main element of the surface heat balance. The main aim of this study was to investigate the changes in the amount of global solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface in Poland during the 30-year period 1986–2015. Trends in changes and fluctuations in the size of global solar radiation over Poland were determined. The solar radiation was described based on satellite products originating from the Surface Incoming Shortwave Radiation product from the Surface Solar Radiation Data Set – Heliosat, Edition 2 (SARAH-2). The average annual sum of global solar radiation over Poland amounted to 3,902 MJ·m−2. The average annual radiation sums were the smallest in northern Poland and mountain basins, while they were the largest in southern Poland. The average annual radiation sum over Poland increased by 7.16 MJ·m−2·year−1 on average. The areas with the largest increase in the amount of solar radiation had the smallest average radiation sums during the multi-year period (Pomerania, Northern Poland), and those where the increase in radiation was moderate had the highest average radiation sums (Central and Southern Poland). This shows that the spatial differentiation of the amount of solar radiation over Poland was gradually decreasing during this period. A several-year cycle (of 12–13 years) of annual fluctuations in global solar radiation sums was observed using wavelet analysis. The cycle was visible between the early 1990s and 2005. It resulted from the medium-term cyclical component (an 11.3-year cycle which was the strongest until 2010) that occurred in summer. In the long term, the occurrence of cycles in the time series of solar radiation may result from cyclical or quasi-cyclical changes in aerosol concentration, but this requires a separate study and further in-depth research based on much longer data series.more
Svalbard is a remote and scarcely populated Arctic archipelago and is considered to be mostly influenced by long-range-transported air pollution. Howe…Svalbard is a remote and scarcely populated Arctic archipelago and is considered to be mostly influenced by long-range-transported air pollution. However, there are also local emission sources such as coal and diesel power plants, snowmobiles and ships, but their influence on the background concentrations of trace gases has not been thoroughly assessed. This study is based on data of tropospheric ozone (O-3) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) collected in three main Svalbard settlements in spring 2017. In addition to these ground-based observations and radiosonde and O-3 sonde soundings, ERAS reanalysis and BrO satellite data have been applied in order to distinguish the impact of local and synoptic-scale conditions on the NOx and O-3 chemistry. The measurement campaign was divided into several sub-periods based on the prevailing large-scale weather regimes. The local wind direction at the stations depended on the large-scale conditions but was modified due to complex topography. The NOx concentration showed weak correlation for the different stations and depended strongly on the wind direction and atmospheric stability. Conversely, the O-3 concentration was highly correlated among the different measurement sites and was controlled by the long-range atmospheric transport to Svalbard. Lagrangian backward trajectories have been used to examine the origin and path of the air masses during the campaign.more
Comparison of surface albedos derived from spaceborne radiometers with different spectral bands requires, first of all, the conversion of these quanti…Comparison of surface albedos derived from spaceborne radiometers with different spectral bands requires, first of all, the conversion of these quantities into common spectral intervals. This letter proposes a spectral conversion method specifically dedicated to surface albedo derived in a large-band instrument such as the solar channel onboard the Meteosat first-generation radiometer. This new method accounts for the retrieval algorithm assumptions and radiometer spectral limitations that might have an impact on the retrieved surface albedo in such a large band. It is also shown that the proposed approach has no impact when surface albedo is derived in narrow bands and confirms the results of previously published spectral conversion methods.more
Editors note: For easy download the posted pdf of the State of the Climate for 2014 is a very low-resolution file. A high-resolution copy of the repor…Editors note: For easy download the posted pdf of the State of the Climate for 2014 is a very low-resolution file. A high-resolution copy of the report is available by clicking here. Please be patient as it may take a few minutes for the high-resolution file to download.more
Editor’s note: For easy download the posted pdf of the State of the Climate for 2016 is a very low-resolution file. A high-resolution copy of the repo…Editor’s note: For easy download the posted pdf of the State of the Climate for 2016 is a very low-resolution file. A high-resolution copy of the report is available by clicking here. Please be patient as it may take a few minutes for the high-resolution file to download.more
Abstract
Editor’s note: For easy download the posted pdf of the State of the Climate for 2017 is a low-resolution file. A high-resolution …Abstract
Editor’s note: For easy download the posted pdf of the State of the Climate for 2017 is a low-resolution file. A high-resolution copy of the report is available by clicking here. Please be patient as it may take a few minutes for the high-resolution file to download.more
Abstract
Editor’s note: For easy download the posted pdf of the State of the Climate for 2018 is a low-resolution file. A high-resolution …Abstract
Editor’s note: For easy download the posted pdf of the State of the Climate for 2018 is a low-resolution file. A high-resolution copy of the report is available by clicking here. Please be patient as it may take a few minutes for the high-resolution file to download.more
In 2019, the dominant greenhouse gases released into Earth’s atmosphere continued to increase. The annual global average carbon diox…In 2019, the dominant greenhouse gases released into Earth’s atmosphere continued to increase. The annual global average carbon dioxide concentration at Earth’s surface was 409.8 ± 0.1 ppm, an increase of 2.5 ± 0.1 ppm over 2018, and the highest in the modern instrumental record and in ice core records dating back 800000 years. Combined, greenhouse gases and several halogenated gases contributed 3.14 W m−2to radiative forcing, representing a 45% increase since 1990. Carbon dioxide is responsible for about 65% of this radiative forcing. The annual net global uptake of ~2.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide by oceans was the highest in the record dating to 1982 and 33% higher than the 1997–2017 average.A weak El Niño at the beginning of 2019 transitioned to ENSO-neutral conditions by mid-year. Even so, the annual global surface temperature across land and oceans was still among the three highest in records dating to the mid- to late 1800s. July 2019 was Earth’s hottest month on record.
Well over a dozen countries across Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Caribbean reported record high annual temperatures. In North America, Alaska experienced its warmest year on record, while the high northern latitudes that encompass the Arctic were second warmest, behind only 2016. Stations in several countries, including Vietnam, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and the United Kingdom, set new all-time daily high temperature records for their nations. Australia set a new nationally averaged daily maximum temperature record of 41.9°C on 18 December, breaking the previous record set in 2013 by 1.6°C. Daily temperatures surpassed 40°C for the first time in Belgium and the Netherlands. Lake temperatures increased on average across the globe in 2019; observed lakes in the Northern Hemisphere were covered in ice seven days fewer than the 1981–2010 average, according to phenological indicators. Over land, the growing season was an average of eight days longer than the 2000–10 average in the NH.Above Earth’s surface, the annual lower troposphere tem-perature was third highest to record high, and the lower strato-sphere temperature was third lowest to record low, depending on the dataset analyzed. Middle- and upper-stratospheric temperatures were lowest on record since satellite records be-gan in 1979. In September, Antarctica experienced a dramatic upper-atmosphere warming event that led to the smallest ozone hole since the early 1980s. Below-average Antarctic sea ice extent persisted throughout 2019, continuing a trend that began in September 2016. Net sea ice extent was below the 1981–2010 average for all days of the year, and January and June each set a new low monthly mean sea ice extent record.
The Antarctic ice sheet continued to lose mass, with the highest rates of loss occurring in West Antarctica and Wilkes Land, East Antarctica. Across the cryosphere, alpine glaciers continued to lose mass for the 32nd consecutive year. Permafrost temperatures in the European Alps were slightly below the record temperatures measured in 2015, while record high permafrost temperatures were observed at a majority of the observation sites across the high northern latitudes. For the first time in the observational record at 26 sites in interior Alaska and the Seward Peninsula, the active layer did not freeze completely, a result of long-term permafrost warming and back-to-back relatively mild and snowy winters.In March, when Arctic sea ice reached its annual maximum extent, thin, first-year ice comprised ~77% of all ice, compared to about 55% in the 1980s.
In September, the minimum sea ice extent tied for the second smallest extent in the 41-year satel-lite record. In the Bering Sea, increasing ocean temperatures and reduced sea ice—which was the lowest on record there for the second consecutive winter—are leading to shifts in fish distributions within some of the most valuable fisheries in the world. Larger and more abundant boreal species, as opposed to smaller and less abundant Arctic species, dominated a large portion of the Arctic shelf in 2018 and 2019. During the 2019 melt season, the extent and magnitude of ice loss over the Greenland ice sheet rivaled 2012, the previous year of record ice loss. Melting of glaciers and ice sheets, along with warming oceans, account for the trend in rising global mean sea level. In 2019, global mean sea level set a new record for the eighth consecutive year, reaching 87.6 mm above the 1993 average when satellite measurements began, with an annual average increase of 6.1 mm from 2018. Ocean heat content measured to 700 m depth was record high, and the globally averaged sea surface temperature was the second highest on record, surpassed only by the record El Niño year of 2016.
In October, the Indian Ocean dipole exhibited its greatest magnitude since 1997, associated with dramatic upper ocean warming in the western Indian Ocean basin. While ENSO conditions during 2019 appeared to have limited impacts, many climate events were influenced by the strong positive IOD, which contributed to a large rainfall deficit from the eastern Indian Ocean to the South Pacific Ocean east of Australia. Record heat and dryness in Australia intensified drought conditions already in place following below-average rainfall in 2017 and 2018, leading to severe impacts during late austral spring and summer, including catastrophic wildfires.
Smoke from these wildfires, along with the volcanic eruptions of Raikoke (Russia) and Ulawun (Papua New Guinea), helped load the stratosphere with aerosol levels unprecedented since the post-Mt. Pinatubo era of the early 1990s. Indonesia also suffered severe drought and extreme wildfires toward the end of 2019; no rainfall was observed in the East Sumba District of the East Nusa Tenggara Province for 263 days.Conversely, the positive IOD also contributed to excess rainfall over the Horn of Africa from August through December, resulting in widespread flooding across East Africa.
Elsewhere, India experienced one of its heaviest summer monsoon rains since 1995 despite a delayed and suppressed monsoon during June. In the United States, rapid snowmelt in the spring, as well as heavy and frequent precipitation in the first half of the year, contributed to extensive flooding in the Midwest throughout spring and summer, notably the Mississippi and Missouri basins. Dry conditions persisted over large parts of western South Africa, in some locations having continued for approximately seven years. Antecedent dry conditions and extreme summer heat waves pushed most of Europe into extreme drought. Due in part to precipitation deficits during December 2018 to January 2019—the peak of the rainy season—wildfires scorched vast areas of the southern Amazonian forests in Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru, as well as in northern Paraguay, later in 2019.
Millions of trees and animals perished, with some local extinctions reported. In Siberia, fire activity during the sum-mer was both strong and farther north than usual. This led to a new record of 27 teragrams (1012 g) of carbon emitted from fires in the Arctic, which was more than twice as high than in any preceding year. Closer to the equator, 96 named tropical storms were ob-served during the Northern and Southern Hemisphere storm seasons, well above the 1981–2010 average of 82. Five tropical cyclones reached Saffir–Simpson scale Category 5 intensity. In the North Atlantic basin, Hurricane Dorian caused unprec-edented and tremendous devastation, with over 70 fatalities and damages totaling $3.4 billion (U.S. dollars) in The Bahamas. Tropical Cyclones Idai and Kenneth severely impacted south-eastern Africa in March and April, respectively. Idai resulted in total damages of at least $2.2 billion (U.S. dollars), the costli-est storm on record for the South Indian Ocean basin, as well as the deadliest with over 1200 fatalities across Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Madagascar.more