Danish astrophysics student discovers link between global warming and locally unstable weather

Climate change gives rise to more unstable weather, local droughts and extreme temperature records, but a coherent theory relating local and global climate is still under active development. Now a Danish astrophysics student at the Niels Bohr Institute used a mathematical approach - inspired by research in the Universe's light - to unveil how global temperature increase engenders locally unstable weather on Earth.

With over 99 percent agreement among climate scientists, it is now clear that Earth is warming globally and that this warming is predominantly human-made.

Temperature increases faster than ever before, and Earth is probably at its warmest for over 100,000 years. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution about 250 years ago, the world has become 1.1 C warmer.

Global and local warming
Climate change in recent years has given us extreme heat records, such as last year, when Canadians measured their highest temperature at almost 50 C; five degrees warmer than the previous record!

But the problem is not limited to heat records: Cold waves, droughts, storms and precipitation also reaches new heights.

How global warming gives rise to local weather extremes is an active, though not yet fully understood, field of research. But with a new mathematical approach, master student Albert Sneppen just came one step closer to the connection between global temperature rise and the instability of local weather.

Inspiration from early Universe
Albert Sneppen spends his time studying astrophysics at the Cosmic Dawn Center, a basic research center under the Niels Bohr Institute and DTU Space in Copenhagen, and is used to pondering on black holes and exploding stars. One day he got the idea that a method normally used to analyze the distribution of light on the night sky could also be used to study the distribution of temperature fluctuations on the Earth's surface.

The method is used in particular to interpret the so-called cosmic microwave background radiation, also known as the "Big Bang afterglow". Suddenly Albert Sneppen saw a kind of "aesthetic coincidence" between heat distribution on the Universe's scales and the Earth's scales.

"For decades, the heat radiation of the early Universe has been studied in the night sky. Researchers use the so-called "angular power spectrum" which tells you how much all parts of the night sky - both locally and globally - are connected. And that is exactly what you want in climate research; a method of examining all scales of climate change at the same time," Albert Sneppen explains.

In other words, climate change makes the differences in temperature grow locally - and with large temperature differences come even more extreme weather patterns.

"The instability and volatility of the weather has generally grown since the industrial revolution, but has especially gained momentum over the last 40 years," says Albert Sneppen. "Together with several other theoretical and observational studies, this model indicates that the weather will become even more unstable in the coming decades."

Research Report:The Power Spectrum of Climate Change

Related Links
University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Science
Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Next-generation weather models cross the divide to real-world impact
Austin TX (SPX) May 19, 2022
Each winter, spring, and summer, extreme weather forecasters and researchers meet to test the latest, most promising severe weather forecast tools and innovations to see how they perform in real-world settings. These testbed experiments, orchestrated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), forecast winter storms, severe thunderstorms, and flash flooding, respectively. The Hydrometeorology Testbed recently held the 12th annual Winter Weather Experiment (WWE). An immersi ... read more