July 22 was Earth's hottest day ever recorded: NASA
What's the story
NASA has confirmed that July 22, 2024, was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth. The data also revealed that the days of July 21 and 23 surpassed the previous daily record set in July 2023. "These record-breaking temperatures are part of a long-term warming trend driven by human activities, primarily the emission of greenhouse gases," said NASA in a blog post.
Monitoring role
NASA's role in monitoring Earth's climate changes
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson commented on the record-breaking temperatures, stating that "In a year that has been the hottest on record to date, these past two weeks have been particularly brutal." He emphasized NASA's crucial role in analyzing Earth's climatic changes through its numerous Earth-observing satellites and over six decades of data collection. Nelson also underscored NASA's commitment to assisting local communities in preparing for and adapting to these changes.
Data verification
Data analysis and corroboration
The initial findings were obtained from data analyses from the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) and Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS-FP) systems. These systems combine millions of global observations from various sources including land, sea, air, and satellites using atmospheric models. The results align with an independent analysis from the European Union's Copernicus Earth Observation Programme, showing a broad agreement in the change in temperature over time despite minor differences.
Ongoing trend
Continuous monthly temperature records: NASA scientists
Scientists from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York noted that these latest daily temperature records follow 13 months of consecutive monthly temperature records. Their analysis was based on the GISTEMP record, which uses surface instrumental data alone to provide a longer-term view of changes in global temperatures at monthly and annual resolutions dating back to the late 19th century.