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Last year was warmest in a
century |
Last year was the warmest in a century,
nosing out 1998, a federal
analysis concludes.
Researchers calculated that 2005 produced the highest annual average
surface temperature worldwide since instrument recordings began in the
late 1800s, said James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for
Space Studies.
The result confirms a prediction the institute made in December.
In a telephone interview, Hansen said the analysis estimated
temperatures in the Arctic from nearby weather stations because no direct
data were available. Because of that, "we couldn't say with 100 percent
certainty that it's the warmest year, but I'm reasonably confident that it
was," Hansen said.
More important, he said, is that 2005 reached the warmth of 1998
without help of the "El Nino
of the century" that pushed temperatures up in 1998.
Over the past 30 years, Earth has warmed a bit more than 1 degree in
total, making it about the warmest it's been in 10,000 years, Hansen said.
He blamed a buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
Jay Lawrimore of the federal government's National Climatic Data Center
said his own center's current data suggest 2005 came in a close second to 1998, in part because of how
the Arctic was factored in. But he said a forthcoming analysis "will
likely show that 2005 is slightly warmer than 1998."
(Agencies) |
一份美國分析報告顯示:2005年是近一個世紀以來最熱的一年,氣溫略微超過了1998年的記錄。
美國航空航天局戈達德空間研究中心的主任漢森說:根據研究人員的數據分析,
自19世紀后期有氣象資料紀錄以來,2005年是世界范圍內地球表面平均氣溫最高的年份。
這份研究結果印證了去年12月份研究中心所做的預測。
漢森在一次電話采訪中說,因為無法獲取有關北極圈的第一手氣象資料,北極圈的氣溫是根據極圈附近氣象站的數據資料分析估算得出的。由此,"我們不敢完全肯定05年氣溫是歷年之最,但我對這個結論還是相當有把握。"
漢森說,更重要的是,有別于1998年,2005年的高溫天氣沒有受到"百年不遇的厄爾尼諾"現象影響。
他同時說,在過去的30年里,地球氣溫上升了1度多,成為1萬年來全球最熱的時期。 漢森認為"溫室氣體"排放量增加是罪魁禍首。
美國國家氣候數據中心的杰尹·勞里莫爾說,中心現有的數據顯示,2005年氣溫略低于1998年,結論不同可能與如何處理北極圈的氣候數據有關。但他也表示,即將出爐的分析結果可能會顯示"2005年氣溫略高于1998年"。
(中國日報網站編譯)
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