| Domain | Atmospheric | Description | Surface air temperature has profound and widespread impacts on human lives and activities, affecting health, agriculture, energy demand and much more. It also has impacts on many natural systems. It is a factor affecting the fluxes of heat, momentum, water vapour and trace species between land and atmosphere and between ocean and atmosphere. Its monitoring provides a key indicator of climate change. Observations of it contribute to estimates of what is commonly known as “global-mean surface temperature” and to a number of indices of extreme conditions. [GCOS-195 4.3.1] |