IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group I: Annex 1

Published: April 5, 2010, 6:46 pm

Updated: May 7, 2012, 4:00 pm

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Climate Change (main)

Table of Contents

# A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y References (IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group I: Annex 1)

Originally published by our Content Partner: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (other articles)

Glossary Editor: A.P.M. Baede (Netherlands) Notes: This glossary defines some specific terms as the lead authors intend them to be interpreted in the context of this report. (IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group I: Annex 1)

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• 8.2ka event Following the last post-glacial warming, a rapid climate oscillation with a cooling lasting about 400 years occurred about 8.2 ka. This event is also referred to as the 8.2kyr event.

A

• Abrupt climate change The nonlinearity of the climate system may lead to abrupt climate change, sometimes called rapid climate change, abrupt events or even surprises. The term abrupt often refers to time scales faster than the typical time scale of the responsible forcing. However, not all abrupt climate changes need be externally forced. Some possible abrupt events that have been proposed include a dramatic reorganisation of the thermohaline circulation, rapid deglaciation and massive melting of permafrost or increases in soil respiration leading to fast changes in the carbon cycle. Others may be truly unexpected, resulting from a strong, rapidly changing forcing of a nonlinear system.
• Active layer The layer of ground that is subject to annual thawing and freezing in areas underlain by permafrost (Van Everdingen, 1998).
• Adiabatic process An adiabatic process is a process in which no external heat is gained or lost by the system. The opposite is called a diabatic process.
• Adjustment time See Lifetime; see also Response time.
• Advection Transport of water or air along with its properties (e.g., temperature, chemical tracers) by the motion of the fluid. Regarding the general distinction between advection and convection, the former describes the predominantly horizontal, large-scale motions of the atmosphere or ocean, while convection describes the predominantly vertical, locally induced motions.
• Aerosols A collection of airborne solid or liquid particles, with a typical size between 0.01 and 10 μm that reside in the atmosphere for at least several hours. Aerosols may be of either natural or anthropogenic origin. Aerosols may influence climate in several ways: directly through scattering and absorbing radiation, and indirectly by acting as cloud condensation nuclei or modifying the optical properties and lifetime of clouds (see Indirect aerosol effect).
• Afforestation Planting of new forests on lands that historically have not contained forests. For a discussion of the term forest and related terms such as afforestation, reforestation and deforestation, see the IPCC Special Report on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (IPCC, 2000). See also the report on Definitions and Methodological Options to Inventory Emissions from Direct Human-induced Degradation of Forests and Devegetation of Other Vegetation Types (IPCC, 2003).
• Air mass A widespread body of air, the approximately homogeneous properties of which (1) have been established while that air was situated over a particular region of the Earth’s surface, and (2) undergo specific modifications while in transit away from the source region (AMS, 2000).
• Albedo The fraction of solar radiation reflected by a surface or object, often expressed as a percentage. Snow-covered surfaces have a high albedo, the surface albedo of soils ranges from high to low, and vegetation-covered surfaces and oceans have a low albedo. The Earth’s planetary albedo varies mainly through varying cloudiness, snow, ice, leaf area and land cover changes.
• Albedo feedback A climate feedback involving changes in the Earth’s albedo. It usually refers to changes in the cryosphere, which has an albedo much larger (~0.8) than the average planetary albedo (~0.3). In a warming climate, it is anticipated that the cryosphere would shrink, the Earth’s overall albedo would decrease and more solar radiation would be absorbed to warm the Earth still further.
• Alkalinity A measure of the capacity of a solution to neutralize acids.
• Altimetry A technique for measuring the height of the sea, lake or river, land or ice surface with respect to the centre of the Earth within a defined terrestrial reference frame. More conventionally, the height is with respect to a standard reference ellipsoid approximating the Earth’s oblateness, and can be measured from space by using radar or laser with centimetric precision at present. Altimetry has the advantages of being a geocentric measurement, rather than a measurement relative to the Earth’s crust as for a tide gauge, and of affording quasi-global coverage.
• Annular modes Preferred patterns of change in atmospheric circulation corresponding to changes in the zonally averaged midlatitude westerlies. The Northern Annular Mode has a bias to the North Atlantic and has a large correlation with the North Atlantic Oscillation. The Southern Annular Mode occurs in the Southern Hemisphere. The variability of the mid-latitude westerlies has also been known as zonal flow (or wind) vacillation, and defined through a zonal index. For the corresponding circulation indices, see Box 3.4.
• Anthropogenic Resulting from or produced by human beings.
• Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) A multi-decadal (65 to 75 year) fluctuation in the North Atlantic, in which sea surface temperatures showed warm phases during roughly 1860 to 1880 and 1930 to 1960 and cool phases during 1905 to 1925 and 1970 to 1990 with a range of order 0.4°C.
• Atmosphere The gaseous envelope surrounding the Earth. The dry atmosphere consists almost entirely of nitrogen (78.1% volume mixing ratio) and oxygen (20.9% volume mixing ratio), together with a number of trace gases, such as argon (0.93% volume mixing ratio), helium and radiatively active greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (0.035% volume mixing ratio) and ozone. In addition, the atmosphere contains the greenhouse gas water vapour, whose amounts are highly variable but typically around 1% volume mixing ratio. The atmosphere also contains clouds and aerosols.
• Atmospheric boundary layer The atmospheric layer adjacent to the Earth’s surface that is affected by friction against that boundary surface, and possibly by transport of heat and other variables across that surface (AMS, 2000). The lowest 10 metres or so of the boundary layer, where mechanical generation of turbulence is dominant, is called the surface boundary layer or surface layer.
• Atmospheric lifetime See Lifetime.
• Attribution See Detection and attribution.
• Autotrophic respiration Respiration by photosynthetic organisms (plants).(mes)

B

• Bayesian method A Bayesian method is a method by which a statistical analysis of an unknown or uncertain quantity is carried out in two steps. First, a prior probability distribution is formulated on the basis of existing knowledge (either by eliciting expert opinion or by using existing data and studies). At this first stage, an element of subjectivity may influence the choice, but in many cases, the prior probability distribution is chosen as neutrally as possible, in order not to influence the final outcome of the analysis. In the second step, newly acquired data are introduced, using a theorem formulated by and named after the British mathematician Bayes (1702–1761), to update the prior distribution into a posterior distribution.
• Biomass The total mass of living organisms in a given area or volume; dead plant material can be included as dead biomass. Biome A biome is a major and distinct regional element of the biosphere, typically consisting of several ecosystems (e.g. forests, rivers, ponds, swamps within a region). Biomes are characterised by typical communities of plants and animals.
• Biosphere (terrestrial and marine) The part of the Earth system comprising all ecosystems and living organisms, in the atmosphere, on land (terrestrial biosphere) or in the oceans (marine biosphere), including derived dead organic matter, such as litter, soil organic matter and oceanic detritus.
• Black carbon (BC) Operationally defined aerosol species based on measurement of light absorption and chemical reactivity and/or thermal stability; consists of soot, charcoal and/or possible light absorbing refractory organic matter (Charlson and Heintzenberg, 1995, p. 401).
• Blocking anticyclone An anticyclone that remains nearly stationary for a week or more at middle to high latitudes, so that it blocks the normal eastward progression of high- and low-pressure systems.
• Bowen ratio The ratio of sensible to latent heat fluxes from the Earth’s surface up into the atmosphere. Values are low (order 0.1) for wet surfaces like the ocean, and greater than 2 for deserts and drought regions.
• Burden The total mass of a gaseous substance of concern in the atmosphere.

C

• ¹³C Stable isotope of carbon having an atomic weight of approximately 13. Measurements of the ratio of ¹³C/¹²C in carbon dioxide molecules are used to infer the importance of different carbon cycle and climate processes and the size of the terrestrial carbon reservoir.
• ¹⁴C Unstable isotope of carbon having an atomic weight of approximately 14, and a half-life of about 5,700 years. It is often used for dating purposes going back some 40 kyr. Its variation in time is affected by the magnetic fields of the Sun and Earth, which influence its production from cosmic rays (see Cosmogenic isotopes).
• C3 plants Plants that produce a three-carbon compound during photosynthesis, including most trees and agricultural crops such as rice, wheat, soybeans, potatoes and vegetables.
• C4 plants Plants that produce a four-carbon compound during photosynthesis, mainly of tropical origin, including grasses and the agriculturally important crops maize, sugar cane, millet and sorghum.
• Carbonaceous aerosol Aerosol consisting predominantly of organic substances and various forms of black carbon (Charlson and Heintzenberg, 1995, p. 401).
• Carbon cycle The term used to describe the flow of carbon (in various forms, e.g., as carbon dioxide) through the atmosphere, ocean, terrestrial biosphere and lithosphere.
• Carbon dioxide (CO₂) A naturally occurring gas, also a by-product of burning fossil fuels from fossil carbon deposits, such as oil, gas and coal, of burning biomass and of land use changes and other industrial processes. It is the principal anthropogenic greenhouse gas that affects the Earth’s radiative balance. It is the reference gas against which other greenhouse gases are measured and therefore has a Global Warming Potential of 1.
• Carbon dioxide (CO₂) fertilization The enhancement of the growth of plants as a result of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration. Depending on their mechanism of photosynthesis, certain types of plants are more sensitive to changes in atmospheric CO₂ concentration. In particular, C3 plants generally show a larger response to CO₂ than C4 plants.
• CFC See Halocarbons.
• Chaos A dynamical system such as the climate system, governed by nonlinear deterministic equations (see Nonlinearity), may exhibit erratic or chaotic behaviour in the sense that very small changes in the initial state of the system in time lead to large and apparently unpredictable changes in its temporal evolution. Such chaotic behaviour may limit the predictability of nonlinear dynamical systems.
• Charcoal Material resulting from charring of biomass, usually retaining some of the microscopic texture typical of plant tissues; chemically it consists mainly of carbon with a disturbed graphitic structure, with lesser amounts of oxygen and hydrogen (Charlson and Heintzenberg, 1995, p. 402). See Black carbon; Soot.
• Chronology Arrangement of events according to dates or times of occurrence.
• Clathrate (methane) A partly frozen slushy mix of methane gas and ice, usually found in sediments.
• Climate Climate in a narrow sense is usually defined as the average weather, or more rigorously, as the statistical description in terms of the mean and variability of relevant quantities over a period of time ranging from months to thousands or millions of years. The classical period for averaging these variables is 30 years, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization. The relevant quantities are most often surface variables such as temperature, precipitation and wind. Climate in a wider sense is the state, including a statistical description, of the climate system. In various chapters in this report different averaging periods, such as a period of 20 years, are also used.
• Climate change Climate change refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g., by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings, or to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. Note that the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in its Article 1, defines climate change as: ‘a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods’. The UNFCCC thus makes a distinction between climate change attributable to human activities altering the atmospheric composition, and climate variability attributable to natural causes. See also Climate variability; Detection and Attribution.
• Climate change commitment Due to the thermal inertia of the ocean and slow processes in the biosphere, the cryosphere and land surfaces, the climate would continue to change even if the atmospheric composition were held fixed at today’s values. Past change in atmospheric composition leads to a committed climate change, which continues for as long as a radiative imbalance persists and until all components of the climate system have adjusted to a new state. The further change in temperature after the composition of the atmosphere is held constant is referred to as the constant composition temperature commitment or simply committed warming or warming commitment. Climate change commitment includes other future changes, for example in the hydrological cycle, in extreme weather and climate events, and in sea level change.
• Climate feedback An interaction mechanism between processes in the climate system is called a climate feedback when the result of an initial process triggers changes in a second process that in turn influences the initial one. A positive feedback intensifies the original process, and a negative feedback reduces it.
• Climate Feedback Parameter A way to quantify the radiative response of the climate system to a global surface temperature change induced by a radiative forcing (units: W m–2 °C–1). It varies as the inverse of the effective climate sensitivity. Formally, the Climate Feedback Parameter (Λ) is defined as: Λ = (ΔQ – ΔF) / ΔT, where Q is the global mean radiative forcing, T is the global mean air surface temperature, F is the heat flux into the ocean and Δ represents a change with respect to an unperturbed climate.
• Climate model (spectrum or hierarchy) A numerical representation of the climate system based on the physical, chemical and biological properties of its components, their interactions and feedback processes, and accounting for all or some of its known properties. The climate system can be represented by models of varying complexity, that is, for any one component or combination of components a spectrum or hierarchy of models can be identified, differing in such aspects as the number of spatial dimensions, the extent to which physical, chemical or biological processes are explicitly represented, or the level at which empirical parametrizations are involved. Coupled Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models (AOGCMs) provide a representation of the climate system that is near the most comprehensive end of the spectrum currently available. There is an evolution towards more complex models with interactive chemistry and biology (see Chapter 8). Climate models are applied as a research tool to study and simulate the climate, and for operational purposes, including monthly, seasonal and interannual climate predictions.
• Climate prediction A climate prediction or climate forecast is the result of an attempt to produce an estimate of the actual evolution of the climate in the future, for example, at seasonal, interannual or long-term time scales. Since the future evolution of the climate system may be highly sensitive to initial conditions, such predictions are usually probabilistic in nature. See also Climate projection; Climate scenario; Predictability.
• Climate projection A projection of the response of the climate system to emission or concentration scenarios of greenhouse gases and aerosols, or radiative forcing scenarios, often based upon simulations by climate models. Climate projections are distinguished from climate predictions in order to emphasize that climate projections depend upon the emission/concentration/radiative forcing scenario used, which are based on assumptions concerning, for example, future socioeconomic and technological developments that may or may not be realised and are therefore subject to substantial uncertainty.
• Climate response See Climate sensitivity.
• Climate scenario A plausible and often simplifi ed representation of the future climate, based on an internally consistent set of climatological relationships that has been constructed for explicit use in investigating the potential consequences of anthropogenic climate change, often serving as input to impact models. Climate projections often serve as the raw material for constructing climate scenarios, but climate scenarios usually require additional information such as about the observed current climate. A climate change scenario is the difference between a climate scenario and the current climate.
• Climate sensitivity In IPCC reports, equilibrium climate sensitivity refers to the equilibrium change in the annual mean global surface temperature following a doubling of the atmospheric equivalent carbon dioxide concentration. Due to computational constraints, the equilibrium climate sensitivity in a climate model is usually estimated by running an atmospheric general circulation model coupled to a mixed-layer ocean model, because equilibrium climate sensitivity is largely determined by atmospheric processes. Efficient models can be run to equilibrium with a dynamic ocean.The effective climate sensitivity is a related measure that circumvents the requirement of equilibrium. It is evaluated from model output for evolving non-equilibrium conditions. It is a measure of the strengths of the climate feedbacks at a particular time and may vary with forcing history and climate state. The climate sensitivity parameter (units: °C (W m–2)–1) refers to the equilibrium change in the annual mean global surface temperature following a unit change in radiative forcing.The transient climate response is the change in the global surface temperature, averaged over a 20-year period, centred at the time of atmospheric carbon dioxide doubling, that is, at year 70 in a 1% yr–1 compound carbon dioxide increase experiment with a global coupled climate model. It is a measure of the strength and rapidity of the surface temperature response to greenhouse gas forcing.
• Climate shift or climate regime shift An abrupt shift or jump in mean values signalling a change in regime. Most widely used in conjunction with the 1976/1977 climate shift that seems to correspond to a change in El Niño-Southern Oscillation behavior.
• Climate system The climate system is the highly complex system consisting of five major components: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the land surface and the biosphere, and the interactions between them. The climate system evolves in time under the influence of its own internal dynamics and because of external forcings such as volcanic eruptions, solar variations and anthropogenic forcings such as the changing composition of the atmosphere and land use change.
• Climate variability Climate variability refers to variations in the mean state and other statistics (such as standard deviations, the occurrence of extremes, etc.) of the climate on all spatial and temporal scales beyond that of individual weather events. Variability may be due to natural internal processes within the climate system (internal variability), or to variations in natural or anthropogenic external forcing (external variability). See also Climate change.
• Cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) Airborne particles that serve as an initial site for the condensation of liquid water, which can lead to the formation of cloud droplets. See also Aerosols.
• Cloud feedback A climate feedback involving changes in any of the properties of clouds as a response to other atmospheric changes. Understanding cloud feedbacks and determining their magnitude and sign require an understanding of how a change in climate may affect the spectrum of cloud types, the cloud fraction and height, and the radiative properties of clouds, and an estimate of the impact of these changes on the Earth’s radiation budget. At present, cloud feedbacks remain the largest source of uncertainty in climate sensitivity estimates. See also Cloud radiative forcing; Radiative forcing
• Cloud radiative forcing Cloud radiative forcing is the difference between the all-sky Earth’s radiation budget and the clear-sky Earth’s radiation budget (units: W m–2).
• CO₂-equivalent See Equivalent carbon dioxide.
• Confidence The level of confidence in the correctness of a result is expressed in this report, using a standard terminology defined in Box 1.1. See also Likelihood; Uncertainty.
• Convection Vertical motion driven by buoyancy forces arising from static instability, usually caused by near-surface cooling or increases in salinity in the case of the ocean and near-surface warming in the case of the atmosphere. At the location of convection, the horizontal scale is approximately the same as the vertical scale, as opposed to the large contrast between these scales in the general circulation. The net vertical mass transport is usually much smaller than the upward and downward exchange.
• Cosmogenic isotopes Rare isotopes that are created when a high energy cosmic ray interacts with the nucleus of an in situ atom. They are often used as indications of solar magnetic activity (which can shield cosmic rays) or as tracers of atmospheric transport, and are also called cosmogenic nuclides.
• Cryosphere The component of the climate system consisting of all snow, ice and frozen ground (including permafrost) on and beneath the surface of the Earth and ocean. See also Glacier; Ice sheet.

D

• Dansgaard-Oeschger events Abrupt warming events followed by gradual cooling. The abrupt warming and gradual cooling is primarily seen in Greenland ice cores and in palaeoclimate records from the nearby North Atlantic, while a more general warming followed by a gradual cooling has been observed in other areas as well, at intervals of 1.5 to 7 kyr during glacial times.
• Deforestation Conversion of forest to non-forest. For a discussion of the term forest and related terms such as afforestation, reforestation, and deforestation see the IPCC Special Report on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (IPCC, 2000). See also the report on Definitions and Methodological Options to Inventory Emissions from Direct Human-induced Degradation of Forests and Devegetation of Other Vegetation Types (IPCC, 2003).
• Desertification Land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification defines land degradation as a reduction or loss in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas, of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rain-fed cropland, irrigated cropland, or range, pasture, forest, and woodlands resulting from land uses or from a process or combination of processes, including processes arising from human activities and habitation patterns, such as (i) soil erosion caused by wind and/or water; (ii) deterioration of the physical, chemical and biological or economic properties of soil; and (iii) long-term loss of natural vegetation.
• Detection and attribution Climate varies continually on all time scales. Detection of climate change is the process of demonstrating that climate has changed in some defined statistical sense, without providing a reason for that change. Attribution of causes of climate change is the process of establishing the most likely causes for the detected change with some defined level of confidence.
• Diatoms Silt-sized algae that live in surface waters of lakes, rivers and oceans and form shells of opal. Their species distribution in ocean cores is often related to past sea surface temperatures.
• Diurnal temperature range The difference between the maximum and minimum temperature during a 24-hour period.
• Dobson unit (DU) A unit to measure the total amount of ozone in a vertical column above the Earth’s surface (total column ozone). The number of Dobson units is the thickness in units of 10–5 m that the ozone column would occupy if compressed into a layer of uniform density at a pressure of 1,013 hPa and a temperature of 0°C. One DU corresponds to a column of ozone containing 2.69 × 10²⁰ molecules per square metre. A typical value for the amount of ozone in a column of the Earth’s atmosphere, although very variable, is 300 DU.
• Downscaling Downscaling is a method that derives local- to regional-scale (10 to 100 km) information from larger-scale models or data analyses. Two main methods are distinguished: dynamical downscaling and empirical/statistical downscaling. The dynamical method uses the output of regional climate models, global models with variable spatial resolution or high-resolution global models. The empirical/statistical methods develop statistical relationships that link the large-scale atmospheric variables with local/regional climate variables. In all cases, the quality of the downscaled product depends on the quality of the driving model.
• Drought In general terms, drought is a ‘prolonged absence or marked deficiency of precipitation’, a ‘deficiency that results in water shortage for some activity or for some group’, or a ‘period of abnormally dry weather sufficiently prolonged for the lack of precipitation to cause a serious hydrological imbalance’ (Heim, 2002). Drought has been defined in a number of ways. Agricultural drought relates to moisture deficits in the topmost 1 metre or so of soil (the root zone) that affect crops, meteorological drought is mainly a prolonged deficit of precipitation, and hydrologic drought is related to below-normal streamflow, lake and groundwater levels. A megadrought is a longdrawn out and pervasive drought, lasting much longer than normal, usually a decade or more. For further information, see Box 3.1.
• Dynamical system A process or set of processes whose evolution in time is governed by a set of deterministic physical laws. The climate system is a dynamical system. See Abrupt climate change; Chaos; Nonlinearity; Predictability.

E

• Ecosystem A system of living organisms interacting with each other and their physical environment. The boundaries of what could be called an ecosystem are somewhat arbitrary, depending on the focus of interest or study. Thus, the extent of an ecosystem may range from very small spatial scales to, ultimately, the entire Earth.
• Efficacy A measure of how effective a radiative forcing from a given anthropogenic or natural mechanism is at changing the equilibrium global surface temperature compared to an equivalent radiative forcing from carbon dioxide. A carbon dioxide increase by definition has an efficacy of 1.0.
• Ekman pumping Frictional stress at the surface between two fluids (atmosphere and ocean) or between a fluid and the adjacent solid surface (Earth’s surface) forces a circulation. When the resulting mass transport is converging, mass conservation requires a vertical flow away from the surface. This is called Ekman pumping. The opposite effect, in case of divergence, is called Ekman suction. The effect is important in both the atmosphere and the ocean. Ekman transport The total transport resulting from a balance between the Coriolis force and the frictional stress due to the action of the wind on the ocean surface. See also Ekman pumping.
• El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) The term El Niño was initially used to describe a warm-water current that periodically flows along the coast of Ecuador and Perú, disrupting the local fishery. It has since become identified with a basin-wide warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean east of the dateline. This oceanic event is associated with a fluctuation of a global-scale tropical and subtropical surface pressure pattern called the Southern Oscillation. This coupled atmosphere-ocean phenomenon, with preferred time scales of two to about seven years, is collectively known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). It is often measured by the surface pressure anomaly difference between Darwin and Tahiti and the sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific. During an ENSO event, the prevailing trade winds weaken, reducing upwelling and altering ocean currents such that the sea surface temperatures warm, further weakening the trade winds. This event has a great impact on the wind, sea surface temperature and precipitation patterns in the tropical Pacific. It has climatic effects throughout the Pacific region and in many other parts of the world, through global teleconnections. The cold phase of ENSO is called La Niña.
• Emission scenario A plausible representation of the future development of emissions of substances that are potentially radiatively active (e.g., greenhouse gases, aerosols), based on a coherent and internally consistent set of assumptions about driving forces (such as demographic and socioeconomic development, technological change) and their key relationships. Concentration scenarios, derived from emission scenarios, are used as input to a climate model to compute climate projections. In IPCC (1992) a set of emission scenarios was presented which were used as a basis for the climate projections in IPCC (1996). These emission scenarios are referred to as the IS92 scenarios. In the IPCC Special Report on Emission Scenarios (Naki?enovi? and Swart, 2000) new emission scenarios, the so-called SRES scenarios, were published, some of which were used, among others, as a basis for the climate projections presented in Chapters 9 to 11 of IPCC (2001) and Chapters 10 and 11 of this report. For the meaning of some terms related to these scenarios, see SRES scenarios.
• Energy balance The difference between the total incoming and total outgoing energy. If this balance is positive, warming occurs; if it is negative, cooling occurs. Averaged over the globe and over long time periods, this balance must be zero. Because the climate system derives virtually all its energy from the Sun, zero balance implies that, globally, the amount of incoming solar radiation on average must be equal to the sum of the outgoing reflected solar radiation and the outgoing thermal infrared radiation emitted by the climate system. A perturbation of this global radiation balance, be it anthropogenic or natural, is called radiative forcing.
• Ensemble A group of parallel model simulations used for climate projections. Variation of the results across the ensemble members gives an estimate of uncertainty. Ensembles made with the same model but different initial conditions only characterise the uncertainty associated with internal climate variability, whereas multi-model ensembles including simulations by several models also include the impact of model differences. Perturbedparameter ensembles, in which model parameters are varied in a systematic manner, aim to produce a more objective estimate of modelling uncertainty than is possible with traditional multi-model ensembles.
• Equilibrium and transient climate experiment An equilibrium climate experiment is an experiment in which a climate model is allowed to fully adjust to a change in radiative forcing. Such experiments provide information on the difference between the initial and final states of the model, but not on the time-dependent response. If the forcing is allowed to evolve gradually according to a prescribed emission scenario, the time-dependent response of a climate model may be analysed. Such an experiment is called a transient climate experiment. See Climate projection.
• Equilibrium line The boundary between the region on a glacier where there is a net annual loss of ice mass (ablation area) and that where there is a net annual gain (accumulation area). The altitude of this boundary is referred to as equilibrium line altitude.
• Equivalent carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration The concentration of carbon dioxide that would cause the same amount of radiative forcing as a given mixture of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
• Equivalent carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission The amount of carbon dioxide emission that would cause the same integrated radiative forcing, over a given time horizon, as an emitted amount of a well mixed greenhouse gas or a mixture of well mixed greenhouse gases. The equivalent carbon dioxide emission is obtained by multiplying the emission of a well mixed greenhouse gas by its Global Warming Potential for the given time horizon. For a mix of greenhouse gases it is obtained by summing the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions of each gas. Equivalent carbon dioxide emission is a standard and useful metric for comparing emissions of different greenhouse gases but does not imply exact equivalence of the corresponding climate change responses (see Section 2.10).
• Evapotranspiration The combined process of evaporation from the Earth’s surface and transpiration from vegetation.
• External forcing External forcing refers to a forcing agent outside the climate system causing a change in the climate system. Volcanic eruptions, solar variations and anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere and land use change are external forcings.
• Extreme weather event An extreme weather event is an event that is rare at a particular place and time of year. Definitions of rare vary, but an extreme weather event would normally be as rare as or rarer than the 10th or 90th percentile of the observed probability density function. By definition, the characteristics of what is called extreme weather may vary from place to place in an absolute sense. Single extreme events cannot be simply and directly attributed to anthropogenic climate change, as there is always a finite chance the event in question might have occurred naturally. When a pattern of extreme weather persists for some time, such as a season, it may be classed as an extreme climate event, especially if it yields an average or total that is itself extreme (e.g., drought or heavy rainfall over a season).

F

• Faculae Bright patches on the Sun. The area covered by faculae is greater during periods of high solar activity. Feedback See Climate feedback.
• Fingerprint The climate response pattern in space and/or time to a specific forcing is commonly referred to as a fingerprint. Fingerprints are used to detect the presence of this response in observations and are typically estimated using forced climate model simulations.
• Flux adjustment To avoid the problem of coupled Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models (AOGCMs) drifting into some unrealistic climate state, adjustment terms can be applied to the atmosphere-ocean fluxes of heat and moisture (and sometimes the surface stresses resulting from the effect of the wind on the ocean surface) before these fluxes are imposed on the model ocean and atmosphere. Because these adjustments are pre-computed and therefore independent of the coupled model integration, they are uncorrelated with the anomalies that develop during the integration. Chapter 8 of this report concludes that most models used in this report (Fourth Assessment Report AOGCMs) do not use flux adjustments, and that in general, fewer models use them.
• Forest A vegetation type dominated by trees. Many definitions of the term forest are in use throughout the world, reflecting wide differences in biogeophysical conditions, social structure and economics. For a discussion of the term forest and related terms such as afforestation, reforestation and deforestation see the IPCC Report on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (IPCC, 2000). See also the Report on Defi nitions and Methodological Options to Inventory Emissions from Direct Human-induced Degradation of Forests and Devegetation of Other Vegetation Types (IPCC, 2003).
• Fossil fuel emissions Emissions of greenhouse gases (in particular carbon dioxide) resulting from the combustion of fuels from fossil carbon deposits such as oil, gas and coal.
• Framework Convention on Climate Change See United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• Free atmosphere The atmospheric layer that is negligibly affected by friction against the Earth’s surface, and which is above the atmospheric boundary layer.
• Frozen ground Soil or rock in which part or all of the pore water is frozen (Van Everdingen, 1998). Frozen ground includes permafrost. Ground that freezes and thaws annually is called seasonally frozen ground.

G

• General circulation The large-scale motions of the atmosphere and the ocean as a consequence of differential heating on a rotating Earth, which tend to restore the energy balance of the system through transport of heat and momentum.
• General Circulation Model (GCM) See Climate model.
• Geoid The equipotential surface (i.e., having the same gravity potential at each point) that best fits the mean sea level (see relative sea level) in the absence of astronomical tides; ocean circulations; hydrological, cryospheric and atmospheric effects; Earth rotation variations and polar motion; nutation and precession; tectonics and other effects such as post-glacial rebound. The geoid is global and extends over continents, oceans and ice sheets, and at present includes the effect of the permanent tides (zero-frequency gravitational effect from the Sun and the Moon). It is the surface of reference for astronomical observations, geodetic levelling, and for ocean, hydrological, glaciological and climate modelling. In practice, there exist various operational definitions of the geoid, depending on the way the time-variable effects mentioned above are modelled.
• Geostrophic winds or currents A wind or current that is in balance with the horizontal pressure gradient and the Coriolis force, and thus is outside of the influence of friction. Thus, the wind or current is directly parallel to isobars and its speed is inversely proportional to the spacing of the isobaric contours.
• Glacial isostatic adjustment See Post-glacial rebound.
• Glacier A mass of land ice that flows downhill under gravity (through internal deformation and/or sliding at the base) and is constrained by internal stress and friction at the base and sides. A glacier is maintained by accumulation of snow at high altitudes, balanced by melting at low altitudes or discharge into the sea. See Equilibrium line; Mass balance.
• Global dimming Global dimming refers to perceived widespread reduction of solar radiation received at the surface of the Earth from about the year 1961 to around 1990.
• Global surface temperature The global surface temperature is an estimate of the global mean surface air temperature. However, for changes over time, only anomalies, as departures from a climatology, are used, most commonly based on the area-weighted global average of the sea surface temperature anomaly and land surface air temperature anomaly.
• Global Warming Potential (GWP) An index, based upon radiative properties of well-mixed greenhouse gases, measuring the radiative forcing of a unit mass of a given well-mixed greenhouse gas in the present-day atmosphere integrated over a chosen time horizon, relative to that of carbon dioxide. The GWP represents the combined effect of the differing times these gases remain in the atmosphere and their relative effectiveness in absorbing outgoing thermal infrared radiation. The Kyoto Protocol is based on GWPs from pulse emissions over a 100-year time frame.
• Greenhouse effect Greenhouse gases effectively absorb thermal infrared radiation, emitted by the Earth’s surface, by the atmosphere itself due to the same gases, and by clouds. Atmospheric radiation is emitted to all sides, including downward to the Earth’s surface. Thus, greenhouse gases trap heat within the surface-troposphere system. This is called the greenhouse effect. Thermal infrared radiation in the troposphere is strongly coupled to the temperature of the atmosphere at the altitude at which it is emitted. In the troposphere, the temperature generally decreases with height. Effectively, infrared radiation emitted to space originates from an altitude with a temperature of, on average, –19°C, in balance with the net incoming solar radiation, whereas the Earth’s surface is kept at a much higher temperature of, on average, +14°C. An increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases leads to an increased infrared opacity of the atmosphere, and therefore to an effective radiation into space from a higher altitude at a lower temperature. This causes a radiative forcing that leads to an enhancement of the greenhouse effect, the so-called enhanced greenhouse effect.
• Greenhouse gas (GHG) Greenhouse gases are those gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic, that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of thermal infrared radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, the atmosphere itself, and by clouds. This property causes the greenhouse effect. Water vapour (H₂O), carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), methane (CH₄) and ozone (O₃) are the primary greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. Moreover, there are a number of entirely human made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as the halocarbons and other chlorine- and bromine-containing substances, dealt with under the Montreal Protocol. Beside CO₂, N₂O and CH₄, the Kyoto Protocol deals with the greenhouse gases sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs).
• Gross Primary Production (GPP) The amount of energy fixed from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.
• Ground ice A general term referring to all types of ice contained in freezing and seasonally frozen ground and permafrost (Van Everdingen, 1998).
• Ground temperature The temperature of the ground near the surface (often within the first 10 cm). It is often called soil temperature.
• Grounding line/zone The junction between a glacier or ice sheet and ice shelf; the place where ice starts to float.
• Gyre Basin-scale ocean horizontal circulation pattern with slow flow circulating around the ocean basin, closed by a strong and narrow (100–200 km wide) boundary current on the western side. The subtropical gyres in each ocean are associated with high pressure in the centre of the gyres; the subpolar gyres are associated with low pressure.

H

• Hadley Circulation A direct, thermally driven overturning cell in the atmosphere consisting of poleward fl ow in the upper troposphere, subsiding air into the subtropical anticyclones, return flow as part of the trade winds near the surface, and with rising air near the equator in the so-called Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone.
• Halocarbons A collective term for the group of partially halogenated organic species, including the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), halons, methyl chloride, methyl bromide, etc. Many of the halocarbons have large Global Warming Potentials. The chlorine and bromine-containing halocarbons are also involved in the depletion of the ozone layer.
• Halosteric See Sea level change.
• HCFC See Halocarbons.
• HFC See Halocarbons.
• Heterotrophic respiration The conversion of organic matter to carbon dioxide by organisms other than plants.
• Holocene The Holocene geological epoch is the latter of two Quaternary epochs, extending from about 11.6 ka to and including the present.
• Hydrosphere The component of the climate system comprising liquid surface and subterranean water, such as oceans, seas, rivers, fresh water lakes, underground water, etc.

I

• Ice age An ice age or glacial period is characterised by a long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth’s climate, resulting in growth of continental ice sheets and mountain glaciers (glaciation).

• Ice cap A dome shaped ice mass, usually covering a highland area, which is considerably smaller in extent than an ice sheet.
• Ice core A cylinder of ice drilled out of a glacier or ice sheet.
• Ice sheet A mass of land ice that is sufficiently deep to cover most of the underlying bedrock topography, so that its shape is mainly determined by its dynamics (the flow of the ice as it deforms internally and/or slides at its base). An ice sheet flows outward from a high central ice plateau with a small average surface slope. The margins usually slope more steeply, and most ice is discharged through fast-fl owing ice streams or outlet glaciers, in some cases into the sea or into ice shelves floating on the sea. There are only three large ice sheets in the modern world, one on Greenland and two on Antarctica, the East and West Antarctic Ice Sheets, divided by the Transantarctic Mountains. During glacial periods there were others.
• Ice shelf A floating slab of ice of considerable thickness extending from the coast (usually of great horizontal extent with a level or gently sloping surface), often filling embayments in the coastline of the ice sheets. Nearly all ice shelves are in Antarctica, where most of the ice discharged seaward flows into ice shelves.
• Ice stream A stream of ice fl owing faster than the surrounding ice sheet. It can be thought of as a glacier fl owing between walls of slower-moving ice instead of rock.
• Indirect aerosol effect Aerosols may lead to an indirect radiative forcing of the climate system through acting as cloud condensation nuclei or modifying the optical properties and lifetime of clouds. Two indirect effects are distinguished:
  • Cloud albedo effect A radiative forcing induced by an increase in anthropogenic aerosols that cause an initial increase in droplet concentration and a decrease in droplet size for fixed liquid water content, leading to an increase in cloud albedo. This effect is also known as the first indirect effect or Twomey effect.
  • Cloud lifetime effect A forcing induced by an increase in anthropogenic aerosols that cause a decrease in droplet size, reducing the precipitation efficiency, thereby modifying the liquid water content, cloud thickness and cloud life time. This effect is also known as the second indirect effect or Albrecht effect.

Apart from these indirect effects, aerosols may have a semidirect effect. This refers to the absorption of solar radiation by absorbing aerosol, which heats the air and tends to increase the static stability relative to the surface. It may also cause evaporation of cloud droplets.

• Industrial revolution A period of rapid industrial growth with far reaching social and economic consequences, beginning in Britain during the second half of the eighteenth century and spreading to Europe and later to other countries including the United States. The invention of the steam engine was an important trigger of this development. The industrial revolution marks the beginning of a strong increase in the use of fossil fuels and emission of, in particular, fossil carbon dioxide. In this report the terms pre-industrial and industrial refer, somewhat arbitrarily, to the periods before and after 1750, respectively.
• Infrared radiation See Thermal infrared radiation.
• Insolation The amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth bylatitude and by season. Usually insolation refers to the radiation arriving at the top of the atmosphere. Sometimes it is specifi ed as referring to the radiation arriving at the Earth’s surface. See also: Total Solar Irradiance.
• Interglacials The warm periods between ice age glaciations. The previous interglacial, dated approximately from 129 to 116 ka, is referred to as the Last Interglacial (AMS, 2000)
• Internal variability See Climate variability.
• Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) The Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone is an equatorial zonal belt of low pressure near the equator where the northeast trade winds meet the southeast trade winds. As these winds converge, moist air is forced upward, resulting in a band of heavy precipitation. This band moves seasonally.
• Isostatic or Isostasy Isostasy refers to the way in which the lithosphere and mantle respond visco-elastically to changes in surface loads. When the loading of the lithosphere and/or the mantle is changed by alterations in land ice mass, ocean mass, sedimentation, erosion or mountain building, vertical isostatic adjustment results, in order to balance the new load.

K

• Kyoto Protocol The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, at the Third Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC. It contains legally binding commitments, in addition to those included in the UNFCCC. Countries included in Annex B of the Protocol (most Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries and countries with economies in transition) agreed to reduce their anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulphur hexafluoride) by at least 5% below 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008 to 2012. The Kyoto Protocol entered into force on 16 February 2005.

L

• Land use and Land use change Land use refers to the total of arrangements, activities and inputs undertaken in a certain land cover type (a set of human actions). The term land use is also used in the sense of the social and economic purposes for which land is managed (e.g., grazing, timber extraction and conservation). Land use change refers to a change in the use or management of land by humans, which may lead to a change in land cover. Land cover and land use change may have an impact on the surface albedo, evapotranspiration, sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, or other properties of the climate system and may thus have a radiative forcing and/or other impacts on climate, locally or globally. See also the IPCC Report on Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry (IPCC, 2000).
• La Niña See El Niño-Southern Oscillation.
• Land surface air temperature The surface air temperature as measured in well-ventilated screens over land at 1.5 m above the ground.
• Lapse rate The rate of change of an atmospheric variable, usually temperature, with height. The lapse rate is considered positive when the variable decreases with height.
• Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) The Last Glacial Maximum refers to the time of maximum extent of the ice sheets during the last glaciation, approximately 21 ka. This period has been widely studied because the radiative forcings and boundary conditions are relatively well known and because the global cooling during that period is comparable with the projected warming over the 21st century.
• Last Interglacial (LIG) See Interglacial.
• Latent heat flux The flux of heat from the Earth’s surface to the atmosphere that is associated with evaporation or condensation of water vapour at the surface; a component of the surface energy budget.
• Level of Scientific Understanding (LOSU) This is an index on a 5-step scale (high, medium, medium-low, low and very low) designed to characterise the degree of scientific understanding of the radiative forcing agents that affect climate change. For each agent, the index represents a subjective judgement about the evidence for the physical/chemical mechanisms determining the forcing and the consensus surrounding the quantitative estimate and its uncertainty.
• Lifetime Lifetime is a general term used for various time scales characterising the rate of processes affecting the concentration of trace gases. The following lifetimes may be distinguished:
  • Turnover time (T) (also called global atmospheric lifetime) is the ratio of the mass M of a reservoir (e.g., a gaseous compound in the atmosphere) and the total rate of removal S from the reservoir: T = M / S. For each removal process, separate turnover times can be defined. In soil carbon biology, this is referred to as Mean Residence Time.
  • Adjustment time or response time (Ta ) is the time scale characterising the decay of an instantaneous pulse input into the reservoir. The term adjustment time is also used to characterise the adjustment of the mass of a reservoir following a step change in the source strength. Half-life or decay constant is used to quantify a first-order exponential decay process. See response time for a different definition pertinent to climate variations.The term lifetime is sometimes used, for simplicity, as a surrogate for adjustment time.In simple cases, where the global removal of the compound is directly proportional to the total mass of the reservoir, the adjustment time equals the turnover time: T = Ta. An example is CFC-11, which is removed from the atmosphere only by photochemical processes in the stratosphere. In more complicated cases, where several reservoirs are involved or where the removal is not proportional to the total mass, the equality T = Ta no longer holds. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is an extreme example. Its turnover time is only about four years because of the rapid exchange between the atmosphere and the ocean and terrestrial biota. However, a large part of that CO₂ is returned to the atmosphere within a few years. Thus, the adjustment time of CO₂ in the atmosphere is actually determined by the rate of removal of carbon from the surface layer of the oceans into its deeper layers. Although an approximate value of 100 years may be given for the adjustment time of CO₂ in the atmosphere, the actual adjustment is faster initially and slower later on. In the case of methane (CH₄), the adjustment time is different from the turnover time because the removal is mainly through a chemical reaction with the hydroxyl radical OH, the concentration of which itself depends on the CH₄ concentration. Therefore, the CH₄ removal rate S is not proportional to its total mass M.
• Likelihood The likelihood of an occurrence, an outcome or a result, where this can be estimated probabilistically, is expressed in this report using a standard terminology, defined in Box 1.1. See also Uncertainty; Confidence.
• Lithosphere The upper layer of the solid Earth, both continental and oceanic, which comprises all crustal rocks and the cold, mainly elastic part of the uppermost mantle. Volcanic activity, although part of the lithosphere, is not considered as part of the climate system, but acts as an external forcing factor. See Isostatic.
• Little Ice Age (LIA) An interval between approximately AD 1400 and 1900 when temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were generally colder than today’s, especially in Europe.

M

• Mass balance (of glaciers, ice caps or ice sheets) The balance between the mass input to the ice body (accumulation) and the mass loss (ablation, iceberg calving). Mass balance terms include the following:
  • Specific mass balance: net mass loss or gain over a hydrological cycle at a point on the surface of a glacier.
  • Total mass balance (of the glacier): The specific mass balance spatially integrated over the entire glacier area; the total mass a glacier gains or loses over a hydrological cycle.
  • Mean specific mass balance: The total mass balance per unit area of the glacier. If surface is specifi ed (specific surface mass balance, etc.) then ice fl ow contributions are not considered; otherwise, mass balance includes contributions from ice flow and iceberg calving. The specific surface mass balance is positive in the accumulation area and negative in the ablation area.
• Mean sea level See Relative sea level.
• Medieval Warm Period (MWP) An interval between AD 1000 and 1300 in which some Northern Hemisphere regions were warmer than during the Little Ice Age that followed.
• Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) Meridional (northsouth) overturning circulation in the ocean quantifi ed by zonal (east-west) sums of mass transports in depth or density layers. In the North Atlantic, away from the subpolar regions, the MOC (which is in principle an observable quantity) is often identifi ed with the Thermohaline Circulation (THC), which is a conceptual interpretation. However, it must be borne in mind that the MOC can also include shallower, wind-driven overturning cells such as occur in the upper ocean in the tropics and subtropics, in which warm (light) waters moving poleward are transformed to slightly denser waters and subducted equatorward at deeper levels.
• Metadata Information about meteorological and climatological data concerning how and when they were measured, their quality, known problems and other characteristics.
• Metric A consistent measurement of a characteristic of an object or activity that is otherwise difficult to quantify.
• Mitigation A human intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases.
• Mixing ratio See Mole fraction.
• Model hierarchy See Climate model (spectrum or hierarchy).
• Modes of climate variability Natural variability of the climate system, in particular on seasonal and longer time scales, predominantly occurs with preferred spatial patterns and time scales, through the dynamical characteristics of the atmospheric circulation and through interactions with the land and ocean surfaces. Such patterns are often called regimes, modes or teleconnections. Examples are the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the Pacific-North American pattern (PNA), the El Niño- Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Northern Annular Mode (NAM; previously called Arctic Oscillation, AO) and the Southern Annular Mode (SAM; previously called the Antarctic Oscillation, AAO). Many of the prominent modes of climate variability are discussed in section 3.6. See also Patterns of climate variability.
• Mole fraction Mole fraction, or mixing ratio, is the ratio of the number of moles of a constituent in a given volume to the total number of moles of all constituents in that volume. It is usually reported for dry air. Typical values for long-lived greenhouse gases are in the order of μmol mol–1 (parts per million: ppm), nmol mol–1 (parts per billion: ppb), and fmol mol–1 (parts per trillion: ppt). Mole fraction differs from volume mixing ratio, often expressed in ppmv etc., by the corrections for non-ideality of gases. This correction is significant relative to measurement precision for many greenhouse gases. (Schwartz and Warneck, 1995).
• Monsoon A monsoon is a tropical and subtropical seasonal reversal in both the surface winds and associated precipitation, caused by differential heating between a continental-scale land mass and the adjacent ocean. Monsoon rains occur mainly over land in summer.
• Montreal Protocol The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was adopted in Montreal in 1987, and subsequently adjusted and amended in London (1990), Copenhagen (1992), Vienna (1995), Montreal (1997) and Beijing (1999). It controls the consumption and production of chlorine- and bromine containing chemicals that destroy stratospheric ozone, such as chlorofluorocarbons, methyl chloroform, carbon tetrachloride and many others.
• Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) A satellite-borne microwave sounder that estimates the temperature of thick layers of the atmosphere by measuring the thermal emission of oxygen molecules from a complex of emission lines near 60 GHz. A series of nine MSUs began making this kind of measurement in late 1978. Beginning in mid 1998, a follow-on series of instruments, the Advanced Microwave Sounding Units (AMSUs), began operation.
• MSU See Microwave Sounding Unit.

N

• Nonlinearity A process is called nonlinear when there is no simple proportional relation between cause and effect. The climate system contains many such nonlinear processes, resulting in a system with a potentially very complex behaviour. Such complexity may lead to abrupt climate change. See also Chaos; Predictability.
• North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) The North Atlantic Oscillation consists of opposing variations of barometric pressure near Iceland and near the Azores. It therefore corresponds to fluctuations in the strength of the main westerly winds across the Atlantic into Europe, and thus to fluctuations in the embedded cyclones with their associated frontal systems. See NAO Index, Box 3.4.
• Northern Annular Mode (NAM) A winter fluctuation in the amplitude of a pattern characterised by low surface pressure in the Arctic and strong mid-latitude westerlies. The NAM has links with the northern polar vortex into the stratosphere. Its pattern has a bias to the North Atlantic and has a large correlation with the North Atlantic Oscillation. See NAM Index, Box 3.4.

O

• Ocean acidification A decrease in the pH of sea water due to the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide.
• Ocean heat uptake efficiency This is a measure (W m–2 °C–1) of the rate at which heat storage by the global ocean increases as global surface temperature rises. It is a useful parameter for climate change experiments in which the radiative forcing is changing monotonically, when it can be compared with the climate sensitivity parameter to gauge the relative importance of climate response and ocean heat uptake in determining the rate of climate change. It can be estimated from a 1% yr–1 atmospheric carbon dioxide increase experiment as the ratio of the global average top-of-atmosphere net downward radiative flux to the transient climate response (see climate sensitivity).
• Organic aerosol Aerosol particles consisting predominantly of organic compounds, mainly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and lesser amounts of other elements. (Charlson and Heintzenberg, 1995, p. 405). See Carbonaceous aerosol.
• Ozone Ozone, the triatomic form of oxygen (O₃), is a gaseous atmospheric constituent. In the troposphere, it is created both naturally and by photochemical reactions involving gases resulting from human activities (smog). Tropospheric ozone acts as a greenhouse gas. In the stratosphere, it is created by the interaction between solar ultraviolet radiation and molecular oxygen (O₂). Stratospheric ozone plays a dominant role in the stratospheric radiative balance. Its concentration is highest in the ozone layer.
• Ozone hole See Ozone layer.
• Ozone layer The stratosphere contains a layer in which the concentration of ozone is greatest, the so-called ozone layer. The layer extends from about 12 to 40 km above the Earth’s surface. The ozone concentration reaches a maximum between about 20 and 25 km. This layer is being depleted by human emissions of chlorine and bromine compounds. Every year, during the Southern Hemisphere spring, a very strong depletion of the ozone layer takes place over the antarctic region, caused by anthropogenic chlorine and bromine compounds in combination with the specific meteorological conditions of that region. This phenomenon is called the ozone hole. See Montreal Protocol.

P

• Pacific decadal variability Coupled decadal-to-inter-decadal variability of the atmospheric circulation and underlying ocean in the Pacific Basin. It is most prominent in the North Pacific, where fluctuations in the strength of the winter Aleutian Low pressure system co-vary with North Pacific sea surface temperatures, and are linked to decadal variations in atmospheric circulation, sea surface temperatures and ocean circulation throughout the whole Pacific Basin. Such fluctuations have the effect of modulating the El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycle. Key measures of Pacific decadal variability are the North Pacific Index (NPI), the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) index and the Inter-decadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) index, all defined in Box 3.4.
• Pacific-North American (PNA) pattern An atmospheric large-scale wave pattern featuring a sequence of tropospheric high- and lowpressure anomalies stretching from the subtropical west Pacific to the east coast of North America. See PNA pattern index, Box 3.4.
• Palaeoclimate Climate during periods prior to the development of measuring instruments, including historic and geologic time, for which only proxy climate records are available.
• Parametrization In climate models, this term refers to the technique of representing processes that cannot be explicitly resolved at the spatial or temporal resolution of the model (sub-grid scale processes) by relationships between model-resolved larger-scale flow and the area- or time-averaged effect of such sub-grid scale processes.
• Patterns of climate variability See Modes of climate variability.
• Percentile A percentile is a value on a scale of one hundred that indicates the percentage of the data set values that is equal to or below it. The percentile is often used to estimate the extremes of a distribution. For example, the 90th (10th) percentile may be used to refer to the threshold for the upper (lower) extremes.
• Permafrost Ground (soil or rock and included ice and organic material) that remains at or below 0°C for at least two consecutive years (Van Everdingen, 1998).
• pH pH is a dimensionless measure of the acidity of water (or any solution) given by its concentration of hydrogen ions (H+). pH is measured on a logarithmic scale where pH = –log10(H+). Thus, a pH decrease of 1 unit corresponds to a 10-fold increase in the concentration of H+, or acidity.
• Photosynthesis The process by which plants take carbon dioxide from the air (or bicarbonate in water) to build carbohydrates, releasing oxygen in the process. There are several pathways of photosynthesis with different responses to atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. See Carbon dioxide fertilization; C3 plants; C4 plants.
• Plankton Microorganisms living in the upper layers of aquatic systems. A distinction is made between phytoplankton, which depend on photosynthesis for their energy supply, and zooplankton, which feed on phytoplankton.
• Pleistocene The earlier of two Quaternary epochs, extending from the end of the Pliocene, about 1.8 Ma, until the beginning of the Holocene about 11.6 ka.
• Pollen analysis A technique of both relative dating and environmental reconstruction, consisting of the identification and counting of pollen types preserved in peat, lake sediments and other deposits. See Proxy.
• Post-glacial rebound The vertical movement of the land and sea floor following the reduction of the load of an ice mass, for example, since the Last Glacial Maximum (21 ka). The rebound is an isostatic land movement.
• Precipitable water The total amount of atmospheric water vapour in a vertical column of unit cross-sectional area. It is commonly expressed in terms of the height of the water if completely condensed and collected in a vessel of the same unit cross section.
• Precursors Atmospheric compounds that are not greenhouse gases or aerosols, but that have an effect on greenhouse gas or aerosol concentrations by taking part in physical or chemical processes regulating their production or destruction rates.
• Predictability The extent to which future states of a system may be predicted based on knowledge of current and past states of the system.Since knowledge of the climate system’s past and current states is generally imperfect, as are the models that utilise this knowledge to produce a climate prediction, and since the climate system is inherently nonlinear and chaotic, predictability of the climate system is inherently limited. Even with arbitrarily accurate models and observations, there may still be limits to the predictability of such a nonlinear system (AMS, 2000)
• Pre-industrial See Industrial revolution.
• Probability Density Function (PDF) A probability density function is a function that indicates the relative chances of occurrence of different outcomes of a variable. The function integrates to unity over the domain for which it is defined and has the property that the integral over a sub-domain equals the probability that the outcome of the variable lies within that sub-domain. For example, the probability that a temperature anomaly defined in a particular way is greater than zero is obtained from its PDF by integrating the PDF over all possible temperature anomalies greater than zero. Probability density functions that describe two or more variables simultaneously are similarly defined.
• Projection A projection is a potential future evolution of a quantity or set of quantities, often computed with the aid of a model.Projections are distinguished from predictions in order to emphasize that projections involve assumptions concerning, for example, future socioeconomic and technological developments that may or may not be realised, and are therefore subject to substantial uncertainty. See also Climate projection; Climate prediction.
• Proxy A proxy climate indicator is a local record that is interpreted, using physical and biophysical principles, to represent some combination of climate-related variations back in time. Climate-related data derived in this way are referred to as proxy data. Examples of proxies include pollen analysis, tree ring records, characteristics of corals and various data derived from ice cores.

Q

• Quaternary The period of geological time following the Tertiary (65 Ma to 1.8 Ma). Following the current definition (which is under revision at present) the Quaternary extends from 1.8 Ma until the present. It is formed of two epochs, the Pleistocene and the Holocene.

R

• Radiative forcing Radiative forcing is the change in the net, downward minus upward, irradiance (expressed in W m–2) at the tropopause due to a change in an external driver of climate change, such as, for example, a change in the concentration of carbon dioxide or the output of the Sun. Radiative forcing is computed with all tropospheric properties held fixed at their unperturbed values, and after allowing for stratospheric temperatures, if perturbed, to readjust to radiative-dynamical equilibrium. Radiative forcing is called instantaneous if no change in stratospheric temperature is accounted for. For the purposes of this report, radiative forcing is further defined as the change relative to the year 1750 and, unless otherwise noted, refers to a global and annual average value. Radiative forcing is not to be confused with cloud radiative forcing, a similar terminology for describing an unrelated measure of the impact of clouds on the irradiance at the top of the atmosphere.
• Radiative forcing scenario A plausible representation of the future development of radiative forcing associated, for example, with changes in atmospheric composition or land use change, or with external factors such as variations in solar activity. Radiative forcing scenarios can be used as input into simplified climate models to compute climate projections.
• Rapid climate change See Abrupt climate change.
• Reanalysis Reanalyses are atmospheric and oceanic analyses of temperature, wind, current, and other meteorological and oceanographic quantities, created by processing past meteorological and oceanographic data using fixed state-of-the-art weather forecasting models and data assimilation techniques. Using fixed data assimilation avoids effects from the changing analysis system that occurs in operational analyses. Although continuity is improved, global reanalyses still suffer from changing coverage and biases in the observing systems.
• Reconstruction The use of climate indicators to help determine (generally past) climates.
• Reforestation Planting of forests on lands that have previously contained forests but that have been converted to some other use. For a discussion of the term forest and related terms such as afforestation, reforestation and deforestation, see the IPCC Report on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (IPCC, 2000). See also the Report on Defi nitions and Methodological Options to Inventory Emissions from Direct Human-induced Degradation of Forests and Devegetation of Other Vegetation Types (IPCC, 2003)
• Regime A regime is preferred states of the climate system, often representing one phase of dominant patterns or modes of climate variability.
• Region A region is a territory characterised by specific geographical and climatological features. The climate of a region is affected by regional and local scale forcings like topography, land use characteristics, lakes, etc., as well as remote influences from other regions. See Teleconnection.
• Relative sea level Sea level measured by a tide gauge with respect to the land upon which it is situated. Mean sea level is normally defined as the average relative sea level over a period, such as a month or a year, long enough to average out transients such as waves and tides. See Sea level change.
• Reservoir A component of the climate system, other than the atmosphere, which has the capacity to store, accumulate or release a substance of concern, for example, carbon, a greenhouse gas or a precursor. Oceans, soils and forests are examples of reservoirs of carbon. Pool is an equivalent term (note that the definition of pool often includes the atmosphere). The absolute quantity of the substance of concern held within a reservoir at a specified time is called the stock.
• Respiration The process whereby living organisms convert organic matter to carbon dioxide, releasing energy and consuming molecular oxygen.
• Response time The response time or adjustment time is the time needed for the climate system or its components to re-equilibrate to a new state, following a forcing resulting from external and internal processes or feedbacks. It is very different for various components of the climate system. The response time of the troposphere is relatively short, from days to weeks, whereas the stratosphere reaches equilibrium on a time scale of typically a few months. Due to their large heat capacity, the oceans have a much longer response time: typically decades, but up to centuries or millennia. The response time of the strongly coupled surface-troposphere system is, therefore, slow compared to that of the stratosphere, and mainly determined by the oceans. The biosphere may respond quickly (e.g., to droughts), but also very slowly to imposed changes. See lifetime for a different definition of response time pertinent to the rate of processes affecting the concentration of trace gases.
• Return period The average time between occurrences of a defi ned event (AMS, 2000).
• Return value The highest (or, alternatively, lowest) value of a given variable, on average occurring once in a given period of time (e.g., in 10 years).

S

• Scenario A plausible and often simplified description of how the future may develop, based on a coherent and internally consistent set of assumptions about driving forces and key relationships. Scenarios may be derived from projections, but are often based on additional information from other sources, sometimes combined with a narrative storyline. See also SRES scenarios; Climate scenario; Emission scenario.
• Sea ice Any form of ice found at sea that has originated from the freezing of seawater. Sea ice may be discontinuous pieces (ice floes) moved on the ocean surface by wind and currents (pack ice), or a motionless sheet attached to the coast (land-fast ice). Sea ice less than one year old is called first-year ice. Multi-year ice is sea ice that has survived at least one summer melt season.
• Sea level change Sea level can change, both globally and locally, due to (i) changes in the shape of the ocean basins, (ii) changes in the total mass of water and (iii) changes in water density. Sea level changes induced by changes in water density are called steric. Density changes induced by temperature changes only are called thermosteric, while density changes induced by salinity changes are called halosteric. See also Relative Sea Level; Thermal expansion.
• Sea level equivalent (SLE) The change in global average sea level that would occur if a given amount of water or ice were added to or removed from the oceans.
• Seasonally frozen ground See Frozen ground.
• Sea surface temperature (SST) The sea surface temperature is the temperature of the subsurface bulk temperature in the top few metres of the ocean, measured by ships, buoys and drifters. From ships, measurements of water samples in buckets were mostly switched in the 1940s to samples from engine intake water. Satellite measurements of skin temperature (uppermost layer; a fraction of a millimetre thick) in the infrared or the top centimetre or so in the microwave are also used, but must be adjusted to be compatible with the bulk temperature.
• Sensible heat flux The flux of heat from the Earth’s surface to the atmosphere that is not associated with phase changes of water; a component of the surface energy budget.
• Sequestration See Uptake.
• Significant wave height The average height of the highest one-third of the wave heights (sea and swell) occurring in a particular time period.
• Sink Any process, activity or mechanism that removes a greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse gas or aerosol from the atmosphere.
• Slab-ocean model A simplified presentation in a climate model of the ocean as a motionless layer of water with a depth of 50 to 100 m. Climate models with a slab ocean can only be used for estimating the equilibrium response of climate to a given forcing, not the transient evolution of climate. See Equilibrium and transient climate experiment.
• Snow line The lower limit of permanent snow cover, below which snow does not accumulate.
• Soil moisture Water stored in or at the land surface and available for evaporation.
• Soil temperature See Ground temperature.
• Solar activity The Sun exhibits periods of high activity observed in numbers of sunspots, as well as radiative output, magnetic activity and emission of high-energy particles. These variations take place on a range of time scales from millions of years to minutes. See Solar cycle.
• Solar (‘11 year’) cycle A quasi-regular modulation of solar activity with varying amplitude and a period of between 9 and 13 years.
• Solar radiation Electromagnetic radiation emitted by the Sun. It is also referred to as shortwave radiation. Solar radiation has a distinctive range of wavelengths (spectrum) determined by the temperature of the Sun, peaking in visible wavelengths. See also: Thermal infrared radiation, Insolation.
• Soot Particles formed during the quenching of gases at the outer edge of flames of organic vapours, consisting predominantly of carbon, with lesser amounts of oxygen and hydrogen present as carboxyl and phenolic groups and exhibiting an imperfect graphitic structure. See Black carbon; Charcoal (Charlson and Heintzenberg, 1995, p. 406).
• Source Any process, activity or mechanism that releases a greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse gas or aerosol into the atmosphere.
• Southern Annular Mode (SAM) The fluctuation of a pattern like the Northern Annular Mode, but in the Southern Hemisphere. See SAM Index, Box 3.4.
• Southern Oscillation See El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
• Spatial and temporal scales Climate may vary on a large range of spatial and temporal scales. Spatial scales may range from local (less than 100,000 km2), through regional (100,000 to 10 million km²) to continental (10 to 100 million km²). Temporal scales may range from seasonal to geological (up to hundreds of millions of years).
• SRES scenarios SRES scenarios are emission scenarios developed by Naki?enovi? and Swart (2000) and used, among others, as a basis for some of the climate projections shown in Chapter 10 of this report. The following terms are relevant for a better understanding of the structure and use of the set of SRES scenarios:
  • Scenario family Scenarios that have a similar demographic, societal, economic and technical change storyline. Four scenario families comprise the SRES scenario set: A1, A2, B1 and B2.
  • Illustrative Scenario A scenario that is illustrative for each of the six scenario groups refl ected in the Summary for Policymakers of Naki?enovi? and Swart (2000). They include four revised scenario markers for the scenario groups A1B, A2, B1, B2, and two additional scenarios for the A1FI and A1T groups. All scenario groups are equally sound.
  • Marker Scenario A scenario that was originally posted in draft form on the SRES website to represent a given scenario family. The choice of markers was based on which of the initial quantifications best reflected the storyline, and the features of specific models. Markers are no more likely than other scenarios,but are considered by the SRES writing team as illustrative of a particular storyline. They are included in revised form in Naki?enovi? and Swart (2000). These scenarios received the closest scrutiny of the entire writing team and via the SRES open process. Scenarios were also selected to illustrate the other two scenario groups.
  • Storyline A narrative description of a scenario (or family of scenarios), highlighting the main scenario characteristics, relationships between key driving forces and the dynamics of their evolution.
• Steric See Sea level change.
• Stock See Reservoir.
• Storm surge The temporary increase, at a particular locality, in the height of the sea due to extreme meteorological conditions (low atmospheric pressure and/or strong winds). The storm surge is defined as being the excess above the level expected from the tidal variation alone at that time and place.
• Storm tracks Originally, a term referring to the tracks of individual cyclonic weather systems, but now often generalised to refer to the regions where the main tracks of extratropical disturbances occur as sequences of low (cyclonic) and high (anticyclonic) pressure systems.
• Stratosphere The highly stratifi ed region of the atmosphere above the troposphere extending from about 10 km (ranging from 9 km at high latitudes to 16 km in the tropics on average) to about 50 km altitude.
• Subduction Ocean process in which surface waters enter the ocean interior from the surface mixed layer through Ekman pumping and lateral advection. The latter occurs when surface waters are advected to a region where the local surface layer is less dense and therefore must slide below the surface layer, usually with no change in density.
• Sunspots Small dark areas on the Sun. The number of sunspots is higher during periods of high solar activity, and varies in particular with the solar cycle.
• Surface layer See Atmospheric boundary layer.
• Surface temperature See Global surface temperature; Ground temperature; Land surface air temperature; Sea surface temperature.

T

• Teleconnection A connection between climate variations over widely separated parts of the world. In physical terms, teleconnections are often a consequence of large-scale wave motions, whereby energy is transferred from source regions along preferred paths in the atmosphere.
• Thermal expansion In connection with sea level, this refers to the increase in volume (and decrease in density) that results from warming water. A warming of the ocean leads to an expansion of the ocean volume and hence an increase in sea level. See Sea level change.
• Thermal infrared radiation Radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, the atmosphere and the clouds. It is also known as terrestrial or longwave radiation, and is to be distinguished from the near-infrared radiation that is part of the solar spectrum. Infrared radiation, in general, has a distinctive range of wavelengths (spectrum) longerthan the wavelength of the red colour in the visible part of the spectrum. The spectrum of thermal infrared radiation is practically distinct from that of shortwave or solar radiation because of the difference in temperature between the Sun and the Earth-atmosphere system.
• Thermocline The layer of maximum vertical temperature gradient in the ocean, lying between the surface ocean and the abyssal ocean. In subtropical regions, its source waters are typically surface waters at higher latitudes that have subducted and moved equatorward. At high latitudes, it is sometimes absent, replaced by a halocline, which is a layer of maximum vertical salinity gradient.
• Thermohaline circulation (THC) Large-scale circulation in the ocean that transforms low-density upper ocean waters to higher density intermediate and deep waters and returns those waters back to the upper ocean. The circulation is asymmetric, with conversion to dense waters in restricted regions at high latitudes and the returnto the surface involving slow upwelling and diffusive processes over much larger geographic regions. The THC is driven by high densities at or near the surface, caused by cold temperatures and/or high salinities, but despite its suggestive though common name, is also driven by mechanical forces such as wind and tides. Frequently, the name THC has been used synonymously with Meridional Overturning Circulation.
• Thermokarst The process by which characteristic landforms result from the thawing of ice-rich permafrost or the melting of massive ground ice (Van Everdingen, 1998).
• Thermosteric See Sea level change.
• Tide gauge A device at a coastal location (and some deep-sea locations) that continuously measures the level of the sea with respect to the adjacent land. Time averaging of the sea level so recorded gives the observed secular changes of the relative sea level.
• Total solar irradiance (TSI) The amount of solar radiation received outside the Earth’s atmosphere on a surface normal to the incident radiation, and at the Earth’s mean distance from the Sun. Reliable measurements of solar radiation can only be made from space and the precise record extends back only to 1978. The generally accepted value is 1,368 W m−2 with an accuracy of about 0.2%. Variations of a few tenths of a percent are common, usually associated with the passage of sunspots across the solar disk. The solar cycle variation of TSI is of the order of 0.1% (AMS, 2000). See also Insolation.
• Transient climate response See Climate sensitivity.
• Tree rings Concentric rings of secondary wood evident in a crosssection of the stem of a woody plant. The difference between the dense, small-celled late wood of one season and the wide-celled early wood of the following spring enables the age of a tree to be estimated, and the ring widths or density can be related to climate parameters such as temperature and precipitation. See Proxy.
• Trend In this report, the word trend designates a change, generally monotonic in time, in the value of a variable.
• Tropopause The boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere.
• Troposphere The lowest part of the atmosphere, from the surface to about 10 km in altitude at mid-latitudes (ranging from 9 km at high latitudes to 16 km in the tropics on average), where clouds and weather phenomena occur. In the troposphere, temperatures generally decrease with height.
• Turnover time See Lifetime.

U

• Uncertainty An expression of the degree to which a value (e.g., the future state of the climate system) is unknown. Uncertainty can result from lack of information or from disagreement about what is known or even knowable. It may have many types of sources, from quantifiable errors in the data to ambiguously defined conceptsor terminology, or uncertain projections of human behaviour. Uncertainty can therefore be represented by quantitative measures, for example, a range of values calculated by various models, or by qualitative statements, for example, reflecting the judgement of a team of experts (see Moss and Schneider, 2000; Manning et al., 2004). See also Likelihood; Confidence.
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) The Convention was adopted on 9 May 1992 in New York and signed at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro by more than 150 countries and the European Community. Its ultimate objective is the ‘stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system’. It contains commitments for all Parties. Under the Convention, Parties included in Annex I (all OECD countries and countries with economies in transition) aim to return greenhouse gas emissions not controlled by the Montreal Protocol to 1990 levels by the year 2000. The convention entered in force in March 1994. See Kyoto Protocol.
• Uptake The addition of a substance of concern to a reservoir. The uptake of carbon containing substances, in particular carbon dioxide, is often called (carbon) sequestration.
• Urban heat island (UHI) The relative warmth of a city compared with surrounding rural areas, associated with changes in runoff, the concrete jungle effects on heat retention, changes in surface albedo, changes in pollution and aerosols, and so on.

V

• Ventilation The exchange of ocean properties with the atmospheric surface layer such that property concentrations are brought closer to equilibrium values with the atmosphere (AMS, 2000).
• Volume mixing ratio See Mole fraction.

W

• Walker Circulation Direct thermally driven zonal overturning circulation in the atmosphere over the tropical Pacific Ocean, with rising air in the western and sinking air in the eastern Pacific.
• Water mass A volume of ocean water with identifiable properties (temperature, salinity, density, chemical tracers) resulting from its unique formation process. Water masses are often identified through a vertical or horizontal extremum of a property such as salinity.

Y

• Younger Dryas A period 12.9 to 11.6 kya, during the deglaciation, characterised by a temporary return to colder conditions in many locations, especially around the North Atlantic.

References

• AMS, 2000: AMS Glossary of Meteorology, 2nd Ed. American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA.
• Charlson, R.J., and J. Heintzenberg (eds.), 1995: Aerosol Forcing of Climate. John Wiley and Sons Limited, pp. 91–108. Copyright 1995 ©John Wiley and Sons Limited. Reproduced with permission.
• Heim, R.R., 2002: A Review of Twentieth-Century Drought Indices Used in the United States. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 83, 1149–1165
• IPCC, 1992: Climate Change 1992: The Supplementary Report to the IPCC Scientifi c Assessment J.T., B.A. Callander, and S.K. Varney (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 116 pp.
• IPCC, 1996: Climate Change 1995: The Science of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group I to the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change J.T., et al. (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 572 pp.
• IPCC, 2000: Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry. Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change R.T., et al. (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 377 pp.
• IPCC, 2001: Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change J.T., et al. (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 881 pp.
• IPCC, 2003: Defi nitions and Methodological Options to Inventory Emissions from Direct Human-Induced Degradation of Forests and Devegetation of Other Vegetation Types J., et al. (eds.). The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan , 32 pp.
• Manning, M., et al., 2004: IPCC Workshop on Describing Scientific Uncertainties in Climate Change to Support Analysis of Risk of Options. Workshop Report. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Geneva.
• Moss, R., and S. Schneider, 2000: Uncertainties in the IPCC TAR: Recommendations to Lead Authors for More Consistent Assessment and Reporting. In: IPCC Supporting Material: Guidance Papers on Cross Cutting Issues in the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC. R., T. Taniguchi, and K. Tanaka (eds.). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Geneva, pp. 33–51.
• Naki?enovi?, N., and R. Swart (eds.), 2000: Special Report on Emissions Scenarios. A Special Report of Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 599 pp.
• Schwartz, S.E., and P. Warneck, 1995: Units for use in atmospheric chemistry. Pure Appl. Chem., 67, 1377–1406.
• Van Everdingen, R. (ed.): 1998. Multi-Language Glossary of Permafrost and Related Ground-Ice Terms, revised May 2005. National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology, Boulder, CO.

This is a chapter from IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Working Group I. Previous: Chapter 11 (IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group I: Annex 1)|Table of Contents (IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group I: Annex 1)|Next: Contributors (IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group I: Annex 1)

Citation

Change, I. (2012). IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group I: Annex 1. Retrieved from http://editors.eol.org/eoearth/wiki/IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report,_Working_Group_I:_Annex_1