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)
Attribution of climate effects on Hurricane Harvey's extreme rainfall in Texas Submitted: Environmental Research Letters S.-Y. Simon Wang, Lin Zhao, Jin-Ho Yoon, Phil Klotzbach, and Robert R. Gillies
The human influence on Hurricane Florence Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Kevin Reed, Alyssa Stansfield, Michael Wehner, and Colin Zarzycki
Marine heatwaves exacerbate climate change impacts for fisheries in the northeast Pacific Scientific Reports William W. L. Cheung & Thomas L. Frölicher
The Roles of Climate Change and Climate Variability in the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season Scientific Reports Young-Kwon Lim, Siegfried D. Schubert, Robin Kovach, Andrea M. Molod, Steven Pawson
Widespread persistent changes to temperature extremes occurred earlier than predicted Scientific Reports Chao Li, Yuanyuan Fang, Ken Caldeira, Xuebin Zhang, Noah S. Diffenbaugh and Anna M. Michalak
Recent increase in catastrophic tropical cyclone flooding in coastal North Carolina, USA: Long-term observations suggest a regime shift Scientific Reports Hans W. Paerl, Nathan S. Hall, Alexandria G. Hounshell, Richard A. Luettich, Karen L. Rossignol, Christopher L. Osburn, Jerad Bales
One hundred years of Arctic surface temperature variation due to anthropogenic influence Scientific Reports John C. Fyfe, Knut von Salzen, Nathan P. Gillett, Vivek K. Arora, Gregory M. Flato, Joseph R. McConnell
Influence of Anthropogenic Climate Change on Planetary Wave Resonance and Extreme Weather Events Scientific Reports Michael E. Mann, Stefan Rahmstorf, Kai Kornhuber, Byron A. Steinman, Sonya K. Miller, Dim Coumou
Multi-model attribution of upper-ocean temperature changes using an isothermal approach Scientific Reports Evan Weller, Seung-Ki Min, Matthew D. Palmer, Donghyun Lee, Bo Young Yim, Sang-Wook Yeh
Human-caused Indo-Pacific warm pool expansion Science Advances Evan Weller, Seung-Ki Min, Wenju Cai, Francis W. Zwiers, Yeon-Hee Kim, Donghyun Lee
The 2021 western North America heat wave among the most extreme events ever recorded globally Science Advances Vikki Thompson, Alan T. Kennedy-Asser, Emily Vosper, Y. T. Eunice Lo, Chris Huntingford, Oliver Andrews, Matthew Collins, Gabrielle C. Hegerland, and Dann Mitchell
Human-caused Indo-Pacific warm pool expansion Science Advances Evan Weller, Seung-Ki Min, Wenju Cai, Francis W. Zwiers, Yeon-Hee Kim, Donghyun Lee
Climate change is increasing the risk of a California megaflood Science Advances Xingying Huang and Daniel L. Swain
A stratospheric pathway linking a colder Siberia to Barents-Kara Sea sea ice loss Science Advances Pengfei Zhang, Yutian Wu, Isla R. Simpson, Karen L. Smith, Xiangdong Zhang, Bithi De, Patrick Callaghan
Forecasted attribution of the human influence on Hurricane Florence Science Advances K. A. Reed, A. M. Stansfield, M. F. Wehner, C. M. Zarzycki
Unprecedented climate events: Historical changes, aspirational targets, and national commitments Science Advances Noah S. Diffenbaugh, Deepti Singh, and Justin S. Mankin
Human-induced arctic moistening Science Seung-Ki Min, Xuebin Zhang, Francis Zwiers
Detection of a Human Influence on North American Climate Science David J. Karoly, Karl Braganza, Peter A. Stott, Julie M. Arblaster, Gerald A. Meehl, Anthony J. Broccoli, Keith W. Dixon
Observed Arctic sea-ice loss directly follows anthropogenic CO2 emission Science Dirk Notz, Julienne Stroeve
Contributions of Anthropogenic and Natural Forcing to Recent Tropopause Height Changes Science B. D. Santer, M. F. Wehner, T. M. L. Wigley, R. Sausen, G. A. Meehl, K. E. Taylor, C. Ammann, J. Arblaster, W. M. Washington, J. S. Boyle, W. Brüggemann