Two Interesting Animations: Global Temp & Atmospheric CO2

Climate change involves dynamic systems that are often hard to understand properly through static numbers. Here are a couple of animations that help paint a better picture of two relevant patterns: global temperature and atmospheric CO2 accumulations.

Global Temperature
Here is a short, but stunning animation of global temperature changes since the late 1800s.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2011-temps.html

(The following text is from the site...)

The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000.

NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis, released an updated analysis that shows temperatures around the globe in 2011 compared to the average global temperature from the mid-20th century. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience warmer temperatures than several decades ago. The average temperature around the globe in 2011 was 0.92 degrees F (0.51 C) warmer than the mid-20th century baseline.

Global temperatures have warmed significantly since 1880, the beginning of what scientists call the "modern record." At this time, the coverage provided by weather stations allowed for essentially global temperature data. As greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, industry and vehicles have increased, temperatures have climbed, most notably since the late 1970s.

In this animation of temperature data from 1880-2011, reds indicate temperatures higher than the average during a baseline period of 1951-1980, while blues indicate lower temperatures than the baseline average.

Atmospheric CO2
This second illustration is from The Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It's approximately 3 minutes long and shows the "Time history of atmospheric carbon dioxide from 800,000 years ago until January, 2009." (actually updated to 2011)

http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/history.html

The graphic on the left of the screen shows the levels measured by the various monitoring stations (note the latitude markings on the x-axis). It bounces up and down as the months go by, steadily bouncing higher as the years go by. The graphic on the right charts these bounces over time as consolidated lines reflecting the rise of the average level of CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere, along with a spinning dial showing the months (annual fluctuations create the saw-tooth pattern). There is a lot going on, but the trends are clear.