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NATURAL AND ATHROPOGENIC FACTORS AFFECTING GLOBAL AND REGIONAL CLIMATE
Citation:
Walker, H A., B. D. Keim, AND M. B. Arndt. NATURAL AND ATHROPOGENIC FACTORS AFFECTING GLOBAL AND REGIONAL CLIMATE. University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, EPA/600/A-02/123.
Description:
New England weather is highly variable for a number of
reasons. Our regional climate is also quite variable. The
winters of the past decade are milder than they were in the
1960s and 1970s but as the ice-out and snowfall data show
(Figs 2.5 and 2.6), the patterns of change appear to be cyclical.
The mid-1960s were marked by a period of severe
drought while recent severe storm events, such as the heavy
flooding in November, 1996 and the ice storms of 1998, all
serve to remind us that living in the New England region
is never dull. With the advent of Earth-orbiting satellites to
monitor our planet and spacecraft that study the sun, an
active International joint project to monitor the Sun ? Earth
(Solar Terrestrial) environment has evolved. Coupled with
an ever increasing computational capability, we are now
able to study the many factors which influence our weather
(the day-to-day variations in temperature, precipitation, and
storm activity) and climate (seasonal and annual patterns
of weather), which characterize the New England region.
In addition to recorded data and observations from space,
recent advances in the study of ice core data, tree rings,
lake and bog sediments, and other forms of proxy data now
allow us to understand how our global and regional climates
have changed in the past.
In this chapter, we discuss some of the factors which are
known to have affected New England climate in the past,
so that we can better understand potential consequences of
future climate variability and change.