Science Sources: Detection and Attribution

Climate Signals tracks detection and attribution studies in real time. Below is an updating database of studies that find the fingerprint of human-caused climate change on observed trends and events. The database is limited to studies of local significance in the United States and studies of global significance. For a broader database of peer-reviewed studies and organizational reports on climate change trends, please see all Science Sources.

Search or browse our collection of detection and attribution studies below, or learn more about detection and attribution studies.

Title Source Date Author(s)
Detection of external influence on trends of atmospheric storminess and northern oceans wave heights Climate Dynamics Xiaolan L. Wang, Val R. Swail, Francis W. Zwiers, Xuebin Zhang, Yang Feng
Single‐step attribution of increasing frequencies of very warm regional temperatures to human influence Atmospheric Science Letters Peter A. Stott, Gareth S. Jones, Nikolaos Christidis, Francis W. Zwiers, Gabriele Hegerl, Hideo Shiogama
Human-induced arctic moistening Science Seung-Ki Min, Xuebin Zhang, Francis Zwiers
Human contribution to rapidly increasing frequency of very warm Northern Hemisphere summers Journal of Geophysical Research Gareth S. Jones, Peter A. Stott, and Nikolaos Christidis
Southern Ocean warming due to human influence Geophysical Research Letters John C. Fyfe
A search for human influences on the thermal structure of the atmosphere Nature B. D. Santer, K. E. Taylor, T. M. L. Wigley, T. C. Johns, P. D. Jones, D. J. Karoly, J. F. B. Mitchell, A. H. Oort, J. E. Penner, V. Ramaswamy, M. D. Schwarzkopf, R. J. Stouffer, S. Tett
Towards the detection and attribution of an anthropogenic effect on climate Climate Dynamics Benjamin D. Santer, Karl E. Taylor, Tom M. L. Wigley, Joyce E. Penner, Philip D. Jones, Ulrich Cubasch
Detecting climate signals in the surface temperature record AMS Journal of Climate Gerald R. North and Mark J. Stevens
Signal detectability in extreme precipitation changes assessed from twentieth century climate simulations Climate Dynamics Seung-Ki Min, Xuebin Zhang, Francis W. Zwiers, Petra Friederichs, Andreas Hense
Detecting an external influence on recent changes in oceanic oxygen using an optimal fingerprinting method Biogeosciences Andrews, O. D., Bindoff, N. L., Halloran, P. R., Ilyina, T., Quéré, C. Le
Attribution of cyclogenesis region sea surface temperature change to anthropogenic influence Geophysical Research Letters N. P. Gillett, P. A. Stott, B. D. Santer
Increasing precipitation volatility in twenty-first-century California Nature Climate Change Daniel L. Swain, Baird Langenbrunner, J. David Neelin, Alex Hall
Detection of human influence on a new, validated 1500-year temperature reconstruction AMS Journal of Climate Gabriele C. Hegerl, Thomas J. Crowley, Myles Allen, William T. Hyde, Henry N. Pollack, Jason Smerdon, and Eduardo Zorita
Detection and attribution of Atlantic salinity changes Geophysical Research Letters Peter A. Stott, Rowan T. Sutton, Doug M. Smith
Models versus radiosondes in the free atmosphere: A new detection and attribution analysis of temperature Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres F. C. Lott, P. A. Stott, D. M. Mitchell, N. Christidis, N. P. Gillett, L. Haimberger, J. Perlwitz, P. W. Thorne
Detection and attribution of global mean thermosteric sea level change Geophysical Research Letters Aimée B. A. Slangen, John A. Church, Xuebin Zhang, Didier Monselesan
Attribution of extreme events in Arctic sea ice extent AMS Journal of Climate Megan C. Kirchmeier-Young
Detection and attribution of temperature changes in the mountainous western United States AMS Journal of Climate Céline Bonfils, Benjamin D. Santer, David W. Pierce, Hugo G. Hidalgo, Govindasamy Bala, Tapash Das, Tim P. Barnett, Daniel R. Cayan, Charles Doutriaux, Andrew W. Wood, Art Mirin, and Toru Nozawa
A multiregion model evaluation and attribution study of historical changes in the area affected by temperature and precipitation extremes AMS Journal of Climate Andrea J. Dittus and David J. Karoly
Detecting regional anthropogenic trends in ocean acidification against natural variability Nature Climate Change T. Friedrich, A. Timmermann, A. Abe-Ouchi, N. R. Bates, M. O. Chikamoto, M. J. Church, J. E. Dore, D. K. Gledhill, M. González-Dávila, M. Heinemann, T. Ilyina, J. H. Jungclaus, E. McLeod, A. Mouchet, J. M. Santana-Casiano