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Dr. James E. Hansen

Columbia University
750 Armstrong Hall
2880 Broadway
New York, NY 10025 USA
Phone: (212) 678-5500
 

Available Downloads:

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July 2006: The Threat to the Planet: Actions Required to Avert Dangerous Climate Change (2.5 MB PDF). Slides from a presentation at SOLAR 2006 Conference on Renewable Energy in Denver on July 10, 2006.

June 2006: The Case for Action by the State of California to Mitigate Climate Change (2.9 MB PDF). Expert report submitted to the United States District Court, Eastern District of California — Fresno in regard to Case No.: 1:04-CV-06663 REC LJO, Automobile Manufacturers vs. California Air Resources Board.

Apr. 2006: Global Warming: Is There Still Time to Avoid Disastrous Human-Made Climate Change? (5.6 MB PDF). Discussion at National Academy of Sciences, April 23, 2006. Also available as PowerPoint presentation (15 MB PPT).

Mar. 2006: Statement of Political Inclinations (50 kB PDF). Response to journalist and public inquiries.

Feb. 2006: Can We Still Avoid Dangerous Human-Made Climate Change? A Presentation at the New School's Social Research Conference (3.6 MB PDF). Text and accompanying slides for a presentation given Feb. 10, 2006, at the New School University's Social Research Conference, New York. Slides separately available as PowerPoint presentation (9 MB PPT).

Dec. 2005: Is There Still Time to Avoid "Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference" with Global Climate? A Tribute to Charles David Keeling (5.5 MB PDF). Text and accompanying slides for a presentation given Dec. 6, 2005, at the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco. Slides separately available as PowerPoint presentation (18 MB).

Nov. 2005: On the Road to Climate Stability: The Parable of the Secretary (480 kB PDF). Draft of journal paper by Hansen et al. to be submitted. (Note: This replaces the longer "On the Road to Climate Stability: A-Team Report on Prospects for Halting the Growth of CO2 Emissions" posted a year ago.)

Nov. 2005: Global Temperatures in 2005 (620 kB PDF). Comments posted Nov. 3, 2005, regarding a recent Washington Post article. (Updated Nov. 7.)

Sep. 2005: Michael Crichton's "Scientific Method" (100 kB PDF). Comments posted Sep. 27, 2005.

Apr. 2005: Earth's Energy Imbalance: Confirmation and Implications (250 kB PDF). Journal article by Hansen et al. published 2005 in Science, 308, 1431-1435.

Apr. 2005: Earth's Energy Out of Balance: The Smoking Gun for Global Warming (160 kB PDF). Explanatory discussion for the just-published Earth's Energy Imbalance paper.

Mar. 2005: A Slippery Slope: How Much Global Warming Constitutes "Dangerous Anthropogenic Interferenced"? An Editorial Essay (250 kB PDF). Article published 2005 in Climatic Change, 68, 269-279.

Oct. 2004: Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference: A Discussion of Humanity's Faustian Climate Bargain and the Payments Coming Due (4.3 MB PDF). Presentation given at the Distinguished Public Lecture Series at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, on Oct. 26, 2004. Slides separately available as PowerPoint presentation (26 MB).

Feb. 2004: Defusing the Global Warming Time Bomb (310 kB PDF). Magazine article published 2004 in Scientific American 290, no. 3, 68-77.

Education:

Research Interests:

As a college student in Iowa, I was attracted to science and research by James Van Allen's space science program in the physics and astronomy department. Since then, it only took me a decade or so to realize that the most exciting planetary research involves trying to understand the climate change on Earth that will result from anthropogenic changes of the atmospheric composition.

One of my research interests is radiative transfer in planetary atmospheres, especially interpreting remote sounding of the Earth's atmosphere and surface from satellites. Such data, appropriately analyzed, may provide one of our most effective ways to monitor and study global change on the Earth. The hardest part is trying to influence the nature of the measurements obtained, so that the key information can be obtained.

I am also interested in the development and application of global numerical models for the purpose of understanding current climate trends and projecting humans' potential impacts on climate. The scientific excitement in comparing theory with data, and developing some understanding of global changes that are occurring, is what makes all the other stuff worth it.

Recent Scholarly Publications:

(See also Dr. Hansen's bibliography webpage at the NASA GISS website.)

Schmidt, G.A., R. Ruedy, J.E. Hansen, I. Aleinov, N. Bell, M. Bauer, S. Bauer, B. Cairns, V. Canuto, Y. Cheng, A. Del Genio, G. Faluvegi, A.D. Friend, T.M. Hall, Y. Hu, M. Kelley, N.Y. Kiang, D. Koch, A.A. Lacis, J. Lerner, K.K. Lo, R.L. Miller, L. Nazarenko, V. Oinas, Ja. Perlwitz, Ju. Perlwitz, D. Rind, A. Romanou, G.L. Russell, Mki. Sato, D.T. Shindell, P.H. Stone, S. Sun, N. Tausnev, D. Thresher, and M.-S. Yao 2006. Present day atmospheric simulations using GISS ModelE: Comparison to in-situ, satellite and reanalysis data. J. Climate 19, 153-192, doi:10.1175/JCLI3612.1.

Shindell, D., G. Faluvegi, A. Lacis, J. Hansen, R. Ruedy, and E. Aguilar 2006. Role of tropospheric ozone increases in 20th century climate change. J. Geophys. Res. 111, D08302, doi:10.1029/2005JD006348.

Hansen, J.E. 2005. A slippery slope: How much global warming constitutes "dangerous anthropogenic interferenced"? An editorial essay. Clim. Change 68, 269-279, doi:10.1007/s10584-005-4135-0.

Hansen, J., L. Nazarenko, R. Ruedy, Mki. Sato, J. Willis, A. Del Genio, D. Koch, A. Lacis, K. Lo, S. Menon, T. Tovakov, Ju. Perlwitz, G. Russell, G.A. Schmidt, and N. Tausnev 2005. Earth's energy imbalance: Confirmation and implications. Science 308, 1431-1435, doi:10.1126/science.1110252.

Hansen, J., Mki. Sato, R. Ruedy, L. Nazarenko, A. Lacis, G.A. Schmidt, G. Russell, I. Aleinov, M. Bauer, S. Bauer, N. Bell, B. Cairns, V. Canuto, M. Chandler, Y. Cheng, A. Del Genio, G. Faluvegi, E. Fleming, A. Friend, T. Hall, C. Jackman, M. Kelley, N. Kiang, D. Koch, J. Lean, J. Lerner, K. Lo, S. Menon, R. Miller, P. Minnis, T. Novakov, V. Oinas, Ja. Perlwitz, Ju. Perlwitz, D. Rind, A. Romanou, D. Shindell, P. Stone, S. Sun, N. Tausnev, D. Thresher, B. Wielicki, T. Wong, M. Yao, and S. Zhang 2005. Efficacy of climate forcings. J. Geophys. Res. 110, D18104, doi:10.1029/2005JD005776.

Koch, D., and J. Hansen 2005. Distant origins of Arctic black carbon: A Goddard Institute for Space Studies ModelE experiment. J. Geophys. Res. 110, D04204, doi:10.1029/2004JD005296.

Novakov, T., S. Menon, T.W. Kirchstetter, D. Koch, and J.E. Hansen 2005. Aerosol organic carbon to black carbon ratios: Analysis of published data and implications for climate forcing. J. Geophys. Res. 110, D21205, doi:10.1029/2005JD005977.

Santer, B.D., T.M.L. Wigley, C. Mears, F.J. Wentz, S.A. Klein, D.J. Seidel, K.E. Taylor, P.W. Thorne, M.F. Wehner, P.J. Gleckler, J.S. Boyle, W.D. Collins, K.W. Dixon, C. Doutriaux, M. Free, Q. Fu, J.E. Hansen, G.S. Jones, R. Ruedy, T.R. Karl, J.R. Lanzante, G.A. Meehl, V. Ramaswamy, G. Russell, and G.A. Schmidt 2005. Amplification of surface temperature trends and variability in the tropical atmosphere. Science 309, 1551-1556, doi:10.1126/science.1114867.

Hansen, J., T. Bond, B. Cairns, H. Gaeggler, B. Liepert, T. Novakov, and B. Schichtel 2004. Carbonaceous aerosols in the industrial era. Eos Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union 85, no. 25, 241, 245.

Hansen, J., and L. Nazarenko 2004. Soot climate forcing via snow and ice albedos. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 101, 423-428, doi:10.1073/pnas.2237157100.

Hansen, J., and Mki. Sato 2004. Greenhouse gas growth rates. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 101, 16109-16114, doi:10.1073/pnas.0406982101.

Mishchenko, M.I., B. Cairns, J.E. Hansen, L.D. Travis, R. Burg, Y.J. Kaufman, J.V. Martins, and E.P. Shettle 2004. Monitoring of aerosol forcing of climate from space: Analysis of measurement requirements. J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer 88, 149-161, doi:10.1016/j.jqsrt.2004.03.030.

Novakov, T., and J.E. Hansen 2004. Black carbon emissions in the United Kingdom during the past four decades: An empirical analysis. Atmos. Environ., 4155-4163, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2004.04.031.

Novakov, T., V. Ramanathan, J.E. Hansen, T.W. Kirchstetter, Mki. Sato, J.E. Sinton, and J.A. Satahye 2003. Large historical changes of fossil-fuel black carbon aerosols. Geophys. Res. Lett. 30, no. 6, 1324, doi:10.1029/2002GL016345.

Santer, B.D., R. Sausen, T.M.L. Wigley, J.S. Boyle, K. AchutaRao, C. Doutriaux, J.E. Hansen, G.A. Meehl, E. Roeckner, R. Ruedy, G. Schmidt, and K.E. Taylor 2003. Behavior of tropopause height and atmospheric temperature in models, reanalyses, and observations: Decadal changes. J. Geophys. Res. 108, no. D1, 4002, doi:10.1029/2002JD002258.

Sato, Mki., J. Hansen, D. Koch, A. Lacis, R. Ruedy, O. Dubovik, B. Holben, M. Chin, and T. Novakov 2003. Global atmospheric black carbon inferred from AERONET. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 100, 6319-6324, doi:10.1073/pnas.0731897100.

Sun, S., and J.E. Hansen 2003. Climate simulations for 1951-2050 with a coupled atmosphere-ocean model. J. Climate 16, 2807-2826, doi:10.1175/1520-0442(2003)016<2807:CSFWAC>2.0.CO;2.

Carmichael, G.R., D.G. Streets, G. Calori, M. Amann, M.Z. Jacobson, J. Hansen, and H. Ueda 2002. Changing trends in sulfur emissions in Asia: Implications for acid deposition. Environ. Sci. Tech 36, 4707-4713, doi:10.1021/es011509c.

Hansen, J., R. Ruedy, Mki. Sato, and K. Lo 2002. Global warming continues. Science 295, 275, doi:10.1126/science.295.5553.275c.

Hansen, J., Mki. Sato, L. Nazarenko, R. Ruedy, A. Lacis, D. Koch, I. Tegen, T. Hall, D. Shindell, B. Santer, P. Stone, T. Novakov, L. Thomason, R. Wang, Y. Wang, D. Jacob, S. Hollandsworth, L. Bishop, J. Logan, A. Thompson, R. Stolarski, J. Lean, R. Willson, S. Levitus, J. Antonov, N. Rayner, D. Parker, and J. Christy 2002. Climate forcings in Goddard Institute for Space Studies SI2000 simulations. J. Geophys. Res. 107, no. D18, 4347, doi:10.1029/2001JD001143.

Hansen, J.E. 2002. A brighter future. Climatic Change 52, 435-440, doi:10.1023/A:1014226429221.

Menon, S., J.E. Hansen, L. Nazarenko, and Y. Luo 2002. Climate effects of black carbon aerosols in China and India. Science 297, 2250-2253, doi:10.1126/science.1075159.

Robinson, W.A., R. Ruedy, and J.E. Hansen 2002. General circulation model simulations of recent cooling in the east-central United States. J. Geophys. Res. 107, no. D24, 4748, doi:10.1029/2001JD001577.

Recent Magazine Articles:

Hansen, J. 2004. Defusing the global warming time bomb. Sci. Amer. 290, no. 3, 68-77.

Hansen, J. 2003. Can we defuse the global warming time bomb? naturalScience, posted Aug. 1, 2003.

Page updated 2006-07-20