Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis

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Category: UNFCCC

Document Type: Ipcc Report

Role: Annex

Glossary for the IPCC Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis Report.

This document is Annex VII: Glossary, part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report titled "Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis". The human-written summary accurately identifies the report as the IPCC Report from IPCC in 2021. The purpose of this specific annex is to define terms used within the main report, ensuring they are interpreted as intended by the Lead Authors in that specific context. The scope is limited to providing definitions for key terminology relevant to the physical science basis of climate change as presented in the report. The glossary was coordinated by a team of editors and compiled by an extensive editorial team. Definitions may include cross-references to other terms defined within the glossary (indicated by italics) and may list subterms. This annex itself does not contain information regarding key obligations, affected sectors, deadlines, compliance dates, or specific regulation or statute names; it serves as a reference for terminology used in the larger scientific assessment report.

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Full text:

SAPVMII
Annex VII: Glossary
Coordinating Editors:
J.B. Robin Matthews (France/United Kingdom), Vincent Möller (Germany), Renée van Diemen
(The Netherlands/United Kingdom), Jan S. Fuglestvedt (Norway), Valérie Masson-Delmotte
(France), Carlos Méndez (Venezuela), Sergey Semenov (Russian Federation), Andy Reisinger
(New Zealand)
Editorial Team:
Rondrotiana Barimalala (South Africa/Madagascar), Roxana Bojariu (Romania), Annalisa Cherchi
(Italy), Peter M. Cox (United Kingdom), Sergio Henrique Faria (Spain/Brazil), Piers Forster
(United Kingdom), Christopher Jones (United Kingdom), Nana Ama Browne Klutse (Ghana),
Charles Koven (United States of America), Svitlana Krakovska (Ukraine), Sawsan K. Mustafa (Sudan),
Friederike Otto (United Kingdom/Germany), Matthew D. Palmer (United Kingdom), Tamzin Palmer
(United Kingdom), Wilfried Pokam Mba (Cameroon), Roshanka Ranasinghe (The Netherlands/Sri
Lanka, Australia), Pedro Scheel Monteiro (South Africa), Joeri Rogelj (United Kingdom/ Belgium),
Sharon L. Smith (Canada), Ying Sun (China), Andrew Turner (United Kingdom), Bart van den Hurk
(The Netherlands), Émilie Vanvyve (United Kingdom/Belgium), Martin Wild (Switzerland),
Cunde Xiao (China), Prodromos Zanis (Greece)
Note:
This glossary defines some specific terms as the Lead Authors intend them to be interpreted in
the context of this report. Italicized words in definitions indicate that the italicized term is defined
in the Glossary.
Subterms appear in italics beneath main terms.
This annex should be cited as:
IPCC, 2021: Annex VII: Glossary [Matthews, J.B.R., V. Möller, R. van Diemen, J.S. Fuglestvedt, V. Masson-Delmotte,
C. Méndez, S. Semenov, A. Reisinger (eds.)]. In Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of
Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Masson-Delmotte,
V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S.L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M.I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E.
Lonnoy, J.B.R. Matthews, T.K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekçi, R. Yu, and B. Zhou (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 2215–2256, doi:10.1017/9781009157896.022.
2215

Annex VII Glossary
1.5°C pathway See Pathways. or ocean, while convection describes the predominantly vertical,
locally induced motions.
Ablation (of glaciers, ice sheets, or snow cover) See Mass
balance/budget (of glaciers or ice sheets). Aerosol A suspension of airborne solid or liquid particles, with
typical particle size in the range of a few nanometres to several
Abrupt change A change in the system that is substantially
tens of micrometres and atmospheric lifetimes of up to several
faster than the typical rate of the changes in its history. See also
days in the troposphere and up to years in the stratosphere. The
Abrupt climate change and Tipping point.
term aerosol, which includes both the particles and the suspending
Abrupt climate change A large-scale abrupt change in the gas, is often used in this report in its plural form to mean ‘aerosol
climate system that takes place over a few decades or less, persists particles’. Aerosols may be of either natural or anthropogenic origin
(or is anticipated to persist) for at least a few decades and causes in the troposphere; stratospheric aerosols mostly stem from volcanic
substantial impacts in human and/or natural systems. See also Abrupt eruptions. Aerosols can cause an effective radiative forcing directly
change and Tipping point. through scattering and absorbing radiation (aerosol–radiation
interaction), and indirectly by acting as cloud condensation nuclei or

Tags: Climate Change, Methodology, Report, Reporting, Research

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