Category Archives: visualisation

Climate graphics of 2016

2016 has been quite a year for the climate. Warmest year ever recorded. Record low sea ice extents at both poles. It has also seen many amazing climate visualisations and animations. I have collected some of my favourites on this storify page, including graphics for temperature, sea ice, pressure observations and Hurricane Matthew.

One of the graphics is shown below, mapping temperature changes from 1850-2016, and including the decadal averages of global temperatures. This graphic has been updated from a previous version.

Mapping global temperature changes from 1850-2016. Click for high-resolution version.

Lancashire temperatures, visualised

Temperatures for Lancashire from 1754-2015
Temperatures in Lancashire from 1754-2015. Click the image for a larger version.

This visualisation of temperatures in Lancashire (UK) shows annual mean data from 1754-2015. The long-term warming trend is clear, with variability from year to year, and some temporary cooler periods due to large volcanic eruptions. The average of the 19th century (black line) separates the warm and cold colours.
Continue reading Lancashire temperatures, visualised →

Olympic spiral

Screenshot from coverage of Rio Olympics opening ceremony
Screenshot from coverage of Rio Olympics opening ceremony

If you watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics, you would have noticed a segment discussing climate change, accompanied by graphics of CO2 emissions, Arctic sea ice melting, sea level rise and a somewhat familiar spiral representation of rising global temperatures (above), a version of which you may have seen somewhere before.

Needless to say, I was rather shocked while watching!

A world before ice

communication, paleoclimate, visualisation

The Earth hasn’t always been struggling with global warming. Around 34 million years ago at the Eocene-Oligocene Transition (EOT) the Earth was undergoing a period of global cooling. This significant shift in climate led to the formation of the first permanent ice sheets of the Cenozoic Era over Antarctica, as shown by the dramatic shift (in a geologic sense) in the oxygen isotope records [1]. The cooling, likely a result of declining atmospheric carbon dioxide levels but potentially also coinciding with Southern Ocean gateway changes, turned Antarctica from a green forested continent to the land of ice we know today. This is illustrated with an image of how this world might have looked.

Guest post by Alan Kennedy, University of Bristol Continue reading A world before ice →