Earth ID: 3596

Five-Year Average Global Temperature Anomalies from 1881 to 2008 for Science On a Sphere

Visualizations by Lori Perkins Released on April 21, 2009

Each year, scientists at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies analyze global temperature data. A rapid warming trend has occurred over the past 30 years. Calendar year 2008 was the coolest year since 2000, according to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies analysis of surface air temperature measurements. In this analysis, 2008 is the ninth warmest year in the period of instrumental measurements, which extends back to 1881. 2005 is the hottest year on record, and 2007 is tied with 1998 for second place. The Earth is experiencing the warmest level of the current interglacial period, or interval between ice ages, which has lasted nearly 12,000 years. This color-coded map displays a long term progression of changing global surface temperatures, from 1881 to 2008. Dark red indicates the greatest warming and dark blue indicates the greatest cooling.

This data visualization of five-year global temperature differences from 1880 to 2008 was designed to be shown on the Science On a Sphere. Dark blue areas show regions where the temperature was cooler then the average temperature. Red areas show regions where the temperature was warmer then the average. This particular image show the global average from 2004 to 2008.

Visualization Credits

Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
James Hansen Ph.D. (NASA/GSFC GISS): Scientist
Makiko Sato Ph.D. (NASA/GSFC GISS): Scientist
Reto A. Ruedy Ph.D. (NASA/GSFC GISS): Scientist
Ken Lo Ph.D. (NASA/GSFC GISS): Scientist
David Lea Ph.D. (University of California, Santa Barbara): Scientist
Martin Medina-Elizade (University of California, Santa Barbara): Scientist

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio Data provided by Robert B. Schmunk (NASA/GSFC GISS)

Science Paper:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/earth_temp.html

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3596

Data Used: