Climate Monitoring & Data Collection (HL) (DP IB Environmental Systems & Societies (ESS))

Climate Monitoring & Data Collection

• Collecting climate data is essential for understanding climate change

• Data is gathered from diverse sources, including:

  • Weather stations, e.g. can measure local temperature, humidity, and wind

  • Observatories, e.g. can monitor gases like CO₂ to track atmospheric changes

  • Radar, e.g. can track precipitation and storms, helpful in predicting weather patterns

  • Satellites, e.g. orbiting sensors that monitor large-scale climate data, such as sea surface temperatures and cloud cover, across the globe

Types of climate data collected

Direct measurements

• Direct measurements are gathered through instruments that physically capture data on-site or in real-time

• Examples include:

  • Temperature: recorded by thermometers at weather stations worldwide to monitor warming trends

  • Greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations: measured by spectrometers and gas sensors in observatories to track gases like carbon dioxide and methane

  • Sea level changes: useful for studying impacts of melting ice and thermal expansion of seawater

  • Precipitation patterns: rain gauges measure rainfall to monitor droughts, floods, and changes in precipitation patterns

Indirect measurements (proxies)

• Indirect data (proxies) provide climate information by examining natural recorders of environmental conditions

  • Proxies are useful when direct measurements are not available

  • This is especially important for collecting historical climate data

• Common proxies include:

  • Ice cores:

    • Extracted from glaciers and polar ice sheets

    • Cores contain trapped gas bubbles that reveal past greenhouse gas concentrations and temperatures

  • Dendrochronology (tree rings):

    • Width and density of tree rings reflect yearly climate conditions

    • Wider rings often indicate wetter, warmer years

  • Pollen analysis from peat cores:

    • Pollen is preserved in sediment layers of bogs and peatlands

    • Certain plants grow best in specific climate conditions, such as warmer or wetter periods

    • By analysing preserved pollen from layers of peat or bog sediment, scientists can identify which plants were growing at different times

    • From this information, they can infer past climate conditions based on the types of plants that thrived

    • This can provide insights into temperature, rainfall, and other environmental factors

Role of data in climate modelling

• Both direct and indirect measurements are essential for creating accurate climate models

• Climate models simulate atmospheric processes and help predict future climate trends

• Long-term data, such as GHG concentrations and temperature trends, inform these models and allow for better predictions of global warming impacts