climate change

Figure 5: Scientific methods used to detect climate change; a. & b. rooftop weather stations, c. instruments attached to hot air balloons which rise high in the air and descend, making measurements throughout the flight, d. satellite photographs and measurements of storm events, e.—i. collection of ice cores for paleoclimate analysis of trapped air bubbles, and j. analysis of tree rings. [fn][[nid:1082]][/fn]

Figure 1: The Earth’s atmosphere is a relatively thin and fragile layer of gases- a. an artist’s depiction, b. a satellite image: the thin blue band of gas seen here hovering above the surface of the earth is our fragile atmosphere. Within this band, which is only 50km thick, occur 99.8% of the molecules of gas that support and protect all forms of live on earth. [fn][[nid:1079]][/fn]