INVOLVING UNDERGRADUATES IN RESEARCH : MEASURING & MODELING ON-LINE CLIMATE DATA

The current research project has allowed direct participation of the undergraduate geoscience majors in relation to retrieving, manipulating, and comprehending the accessible critical on-line climate data for better understanding of the physico-chemical phenomena associated with the global climatic scenario. Surface temperature data was obtained from the NOAA NCEP - NCAR CDAS - 1 DAILY Diagnostic above _ ground temp: Temperature data online. Information from January 1, 1958 to December, 2003 was used for this study. Mid-latitude, continental areas were selected for investigation considering the constraints on air temperature, due to changes in the heat budget at the surface of the earth are most easily observed in these regions. Detailed computational analyses indicate that global warming, during the study period, is consistent with an abundance in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere. Furthermore, factors other than anthropogenic increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide also provide a significant control on the heat budget at the surface of the earth.