The Importance of Accurate Data Loggers in Reducing Global Warming
Last week (Monday, Oct 8th), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a special report on Global Warming that has emphasised the urgency of reducing global warming. The report specifies how we need to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 ⁰C as just 0.5 ⁰C more than this can have catastrophic consequences. This small margin between manageable and dangerous highlights the need for increased accuracy of environmental monitoring technology worldwide.
The report draws together the expertise of 91 authors and review editors from 40 countries and outlines a vast number of global impacts that could be avoided by limiting global warming to 1.5 ⁰C compared to 2 ⁰C by 2030.
While 0.5 ⁰C doesn’t sound like much of a difference in everyday life, the difference in impacts could be enormous. If global warming shifts from 1.5 ⁰C to 2 ⁰C we may see heat waves lasting a third longer, tropical storms around a third more intense and coral reefs being virtually wiped out by 2100.
Global warming currently sits at 1 ⁰C and according to experts we are currently heading for more than 3 ⁰C increase in global temperatures, which calls for extreme measures to reduce our impact in the next twelve years.
The butterfly effect of tiny changes in temperature and the enormous consequences they have affecting extreme weather, sea levels and ecosystems emphasises the importance of accurate and consistent data collection for temperatures worldwide to avoid these consequences.
But how do scientists collect this data across the world?
Global temperatures are collected using three methods to then be analysed, combined and collated into a monthly mean average.
The first measure is performed through observations of surface temperature. This data is collected by a range of thermometers located at on-land weather stations, buoys at sea and by individuals across the globe.
The second measure is that of tropospheric temperature retrievals from infrared radiometers on satellites which observe the layer of atmosphere closest to the Earth’s surface (the troposphere) to calculate the temperature.
A final method is the measurement of outgoing infrared radiation through a combination of satellite and ground-based spectrometers. This is because greenhouse gases released by human activity cause warming by lowering the rate of infrared radiation (i.e. heat) lost to space by trapping it.
These three main forms of measurement combine to provide an overall tracking, gathered and analysed by three global organisations: NASA GISS, the University of East Anglia’s CRU and NOAA NCDC. These data sets and software are publicly available through the NASA and CRU websites.
Our data loggers
At FilesThruTheAir™, our data loggers are used for a wide variety of environmental monitoring applications, from individual loggers recording locally to multiple devices operating in a network for large-scale monitoring.
There are several important factors to consider when choosing the right logger for your environment. When working in an outdoor environment, it is important to select a hard-wearing device with long battery life. Our USB data loggers can withstand all kinds of weather elements and have a battery life of two years, meaning they can be left to record data for a substantial amount of time before being plugged into a PC for analysis. One application of this can be monitoring the climate in wildlife habitats to help investigate animal behaviour, or else to assist with crop improvement.
Whatever your need – global or local – our devices are accurate, reliable and easy to use. See our products page to get started.
Sources
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/global-warming-limit-degrees-ipcc-climate-change
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2458/why-a-half-degree-temperature-rise-is-a-big-deal/
https://www.skepticalscience.com/surface-temperature-measurements-advanced.htm