(Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory)Įarth's climate is regulated by ocean currents and one of the most important of these is the Gulf Stream, which acts like a giant conveyer belt transporting heat around the ocean. The Gulf Stream current (red) speeds warm water up the eastern coast of the United States, where it clashes with cold water in the North Atlantic. Read more: Seas will likely rise even faster than worst-case scenarios predicted by climate models Gulf Stream slowdown The scientists found that existing sea-level models predicted more conservative maximums than the new models did, according to the study published in the journal Ocean Science. By evaluating historical data and looking at how quickly seas rose and fell as ancient Earth warmed and cooled, researchers could then estimate a rate for future sea-level rise that was unexplored in previous computations. Prior models estimated that by the year 2100, global sea-level average would likely rise by 3.61 feet (1.10 meters), but scientists now suggest that oceans will rise even more rapidly than that, based on sea level rise events in Earth's distant past. We've likely been underestimating how quickly sea level rise could happen, a February study showed. (Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Read more: Broiling 2020 was the hottest year ever, NASA climate scientists say Faster sea level riseĪn abandoned boat sits in the water amid dead cypress trees in coastal waters and marsh Augin Venice, Louisiana, in a region already impacted by sea level rise. However, in a separate assessment, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that 2020 was the second-hottest year after 2016, with temperatures that were 1.76 F (0.98 C) higher than average - just 0.04 F (0.02 C) cooler than 2016's average temperatures. Though the conclusions of the two agencies presented slight variations, both concurred that the current warming trend on Earth is unprecedented, with average global temperatures on the rise for more than 50 years.
Researchers at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York stated in January that 2020's global average surface temperatures were warmer than the 20th-century average by 1.84 F (1.02 C). (Image credit: NOAA NCEI)Īt the start of 2021, NASA climate scientists announced that 2020 ranked alongside 2016 as the hottest year of all time. Color blocks show increasing warmth, from dark blue (record-coldest area) to dark red (record-warmest area). A world map plotted with color blocks depicting percentiles of global average land and ocean temperatures for the full year 2020.
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