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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 23, NO. 13, PAGES 1665–1668, 1996

Global Surface Air Temperature in 1995: Return to Pre-Pinatubo Level

J. Hansen

NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY


R. Ruedy

NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY


M. Sato

NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY


R. Reynolds

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction, Camp Springs, MD


Abstract

Global surface air temperature has increased about 0.5°C from the minimum of mid- 1992, a year after the Mt. Pinatubo eruption. Both a land-based surface air temperature record and a land-marine temperature index place the meteorological year 1995 at approximately the same level as 1990, previously the warmest year in the period of instrumental data. As El Niño warming was small in 1995, the solar cycle near a minimum, and ozone depletion near record levels, the observed high temperature supports the contention of an underlying global warming trend. The pattern of Northern Hemisphere temperature change in recent decades appears to reflect a change of atmospheric dynamics.

Received 15 December 1995; accepted 22 March 1996.

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Citation: Hansen, J., R. Ruedy, M. Sato, and R. Reynolds (1996), Global Surface Air Temperature in 1995: Return to Pre-Pinatubo Level, Geophys. Res. Lett., 23(13), 1665–1668.