Long-Term Earth Observation Insights

The recent paper by Henley et al. 2024 provides a comprehensive analysis of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the Coral Sea over the past four centuries, highlighting the unprecedented ocean heat levels recorded in recent years. The study, widely featured across news headlines in August 2024, utilized a combination of instrumental SST observations and coral-derived temperature proxy data to reconstruct historical SSTs from 1618 to 1995. The findings reveal that the January - March Coral Sea heat extremes in 2024, 2017, and 2020 (in order of descending average SST anomalies) were the highest in the 400-year record, surpassing the 95th-percentile uncertainty limit of pre-1900 temperature reconstructions.

Nature-based climate solutions (NbCS) are considered an important component of the world’s response to our climate crisis. Nations, corporations, and nonprofits are increasingly investing in NbCS. Yet a critical challenge has emerged – how do we rigorously quantify and verify their long-term climate mitigation potential?

Long-term environmental datasets, such as the Keeling curve of atmospheric CO₂ concentrations or cherry blossom dates in Kyoto, are invaluable for documenting our changing planet and the impact of human activity on the biosphere. However, the future of many such datasets is precarious. Their continuation is often dependent on unpredictable factors such as funding cycles, shifts in funding priorities, or chance events.