NASA GISS: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

2020 Tied for Warmest Year on Record, NASA Analysis Shows

Sample global map of climate model temperature data

Globally, 2020 was the hottest year on record, effectively tying 2016, the previous record. Overall, Earth’s average temperature has risen more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1880s. (2021-01-14)

Climate Events of 2020 Show How Excess Heat is Expressed on Earth

Satellite image showing fires in the U.S. as Hurricane Sally makes landfall

The events of 2020 are consistent with what models have predicted: extreme climate events such as severe heat waves, larger wildfires and more intense hurricanes are more likely because of greenhouse gas emissions. (2021-01-14)

Improving Assessments of Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture

Impact assessments help identify and quantify risks to the world's food supply as well as evaluate sustainable adaptation and mitigation strategies. (2021-01-11)

The Drying U.S. West

Map of US groundwater wetness percentile

A serious drought has flared up across half of the United States — a familiar story for the past two decades. (2020-12-14)

A Destructive Abundance

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was supercharged, and not just in raw numbers. (2020-12-10)

Making Sense of "Climate Sensitivity"

A portion of a global temperature trends map

GISS scientists answer questions about a new study that narrows the range of uncertainty in future climate projections. (2020-09-09)

Announcements

+ Columbia Univ. Postdoc. Res. Scientist in Cloud Physics

+ Columbia Univ. Postdoc. Res. Scientist in Global Crop Modeling

About GISS

Research at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) emphasizes a broad study of global change, which is an interdisciplinary initiative addressing natural and man-made changes in our environment that occur on various time scales — from one-time forcings such as volcanic explosions, to seasonal and annual effects such as El Niño, and on up to the millennia of ice ages — and that affect the habitability of our planet.

GISS is located at Columbia University in New York City. The institute is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and is affiliated with the Columbia Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science.

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Recent Publications

Jin, Z., and A.A. Lacis, 2021: An efficient and accurate algorithm for computing grid-averaged solar fluxes for horizontally inhomogeneous clouds. J. Atmos. Sci., 78, no. 2, 385-398, doi:10.1175/JAS-D-20-0167.1.

Miller, R.L., G.A. Schmidt, L. Nazarenko, S.E. Bauer, M. Kelley, R. Ruedy, G.L. Russell, A. Ackerman, I. Aleinov, M. Bauer, R. Bleck, V. Canuto, G. Cesana, Y. Cheng, T.L. Clune, B. Cook, C.A. Cruz, A.D. Del Genio, G.S. Elsaesser, G. Faluvegi, N.Y. Kiang, D. Kim, A.A. Lacis, A. Leboissetier, A.N. LeGrande, K.K. Lo, J. Marshall, E.E. Matthews, S. McDermid, K. Mezuman, L.T. Murray, V. Oinas, C. Orbe, C. Pérez García-Pando, J.P. Perlwitz, M.J. Puma, D. Rind, A. Romanou, D.T. Shindell, S. Sun, N. Tausnev, K. Tsigaridis, G. Tselioudis, E. Weng, J. Wu, and M.-S. Yao, 2021: CMIP6 historical simulations (1850-2014) with GISS-E2.1. J. Adv. Model. Earth Syst., 13, no. 1, e2019MS002034, doi:10.1029/2019MS002034.

Falkendal, T., C. Otto, J. Schewe, J. Jägermeyr, M. Konar, M. Kummu, B. Watkins, and M.J. Puma, 2021: Grain export restrictions during COVID-19 risk food insecurity in many low- and middle-income countries. Nat. Food, 2, no. 1, 11-14, doi:10.1038/s43016-020-00211-7.

Hickman, J.E., B. Kaya, A. Kebede, S. Kandji, L. Fitch, C. Neill, G. Nyadzi, W. Diru, and C.A. Palm, 2021: Little effect of land use on N₂O and NO emission pulses following rewetting of dry soils across seasonally dry sub-Saharan Africa. J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosci., 126, no. 1, e2020JG005742, doi:10.1029/2020JG005742.

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Goddard Space Flight Center
Sciences and Exploration Directorate
Earth Sciences Division