2011 State of the Climate Report Released Today NOAA released
the 2011 State of the Climate report, a peer-reviewed report
compiled by 378 scientists from 48 countries around the world.
It provides a detailed update on global climate indicators,
notable weather events, and other data collected by
environmental monitoring stations and instruments on land, sea,
ice, and sky. According to the report, 2011 was the coolest year
on record since 2008 even though temperatures remained above the
1981–2010 average. The report uses 43 climate indicators to
track and identify changes and overall trends to the global
climate system. These indicators include greenhouse gas
concentrations, temperature of the lower and upper atmosphere,
cloud cover, sea surface temperature, sea level rise, ocean
salinity, sea ice extent and snow cover. Each indicator includes
thousands of measurements from multiple independent datasets.
The report also provides details on a number of extreme events
experienced all over the globe, including t