Global average temperature
Global average temperature (or global average surface temperature) is an estimate of the Earth’s mean surface air temperature when taken as an average over the entire planet for a year.
The global average temperature is calculated yearly by measuring above land temperature and that of the oceans in thousands of places across the globe. The temperature at each location, subtracted from the usual temperature on that day (called the anomaly), this is then calculated for each day and averaged for all locations across the globe, then for the whole year, to arrive at a global average temperature for a specific year.
According to ongoing temperature analysis being led by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), the average global temperature on earth has increased by at least 1.1° Celsius (1.9° Fahrenheit) since 1880. Most of the warming has occurred since 1975, at a rate of roughly 0.15 to 0.20°C per decade and although there are global temperature anomaly years such as in 2021, the sixth warmest year, records show that nine of the ten hottest years have all occurred in the past decade.
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