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)
Anthropogenic Warming of the Oceans: Observations and Model Results AMS Journal of Climate David W. Pierce and Tim P. Barnett
Detectable Changes in the Frequency of Temperature Extremes AMS Journal of Climate Simone Morak, Gabriele C. Hegerl, and Nikolaos Christidis
Change in the Odds of Warm Years and Seasons Due to Anthropogenic Influence on the Climate AMS Journal of Climate Nikolaos Christidis and Peter A. Stott
Forced and Internal Twentieth-Century SST Trends in the North Atlantic AMS Journal of Climate Mingfang Ting, Yochanan Kushnir, Richard Seager, and Cuihua Li
Distinguishing Pronounced Droughts in the Southwestern United States: Seasonality and Effects of Warmer Temperatures AMS Journal of Climate Jeremy L. Weiss
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
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
Attribution of Declining Western U.S. Snowpack to Human Effects AMS Journal of Climate David W. Pierce, Tim P. Barnett, Hugo G. Hidalgo, Tapash Das, Céline Bonfils, Benjamin D. Santer, Govindasamy Bala, Michael D. Dettinger, Daniel R. Cayan, Art Mirin, Andrew W. Wood, and Toru Nozawa
Causes of Robust Seasonal Land Precipitation Changes AMS Journal of Climate Debbie Polson and Gabriele C. Hegerl
Attribution of extreme events in Arctic sea ice extent AMS Journal of Climate Megan C. Kirchmeier-Young
Detection and Attribution of Streamflow Timing Changes to Climate Change in the Western United States AMS Journal of Climate H. G. Hidalgo, T. Das, M. D. Dettinger, D. R. Cayan, D. W. Pierce, T. P. Barnett, G. Bala, A. Mirin, A. W. Wood, C. Bonfils, B. D. Santer, and T. Nozawa
Deducing Multidecadal Anthropogenic Global Warming Trends Using Multiple Regression Analysis AMS Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences Jiansong Zhou and Ka-Kit Tung
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
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
Using present-day observations to detect when anthropogenic change forces surface ocean carbonate chemistry outside preindustrial bounds Biogeosciences Sutton, Adrienne J., Sabine, Christopher L., Feely, Richard A., Cai, Wei-Jun, Cronin, Meghan F., McPhaden, Michael J., Morell, Julio M., Newton, Jan A., Noh, Jae-Hoon, Ólafsdóttir, Sólveig R., Salisbury, Joseph E., Send, Uwe et al
EEE 2015: Multimodel Assessment of Anthropogenic Influence on Record Global and Regional Warmth During 2015 Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Jonghun Kam, Thomas R. Knutson, Fanrong Zeng, and Andrew T. Wittenberg
EEE 2018: Quantifying Human-Induced Temperature Impacts on the 2018 United States Four Corners Hydrologic and Agro-Pastoral Drought Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Williams, E., Funk, C., Shukla, S., and McEvoy, D.
EEE 2015: An Assessment of the Role of Anthropogenic Climate Change in the Alaska Fire Season of 2015 Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society James L. Partain Jr., Sharon Alden, Uma S. Bhatt, Peter A. Bieniek, Brian R. Brettschneider, Rick T. Lader, Peter Q. Olsson, T. Scott Rupp, Heidi Strader, Richard L. Thoman Jr., John E. Walsh, Alison D. York, and Robert H. Ziel
EEE 2018: Anthropogenic Impacts on the Exceptional Precipitation of 2018 in the Mid-Atlantic United States Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Winter, J. H., Huang, H., Osterberg, E. C., and Mankin, J. S.
EEE 2015: The 2014/15 Snowpack Drought in Washington State and its Climate Forcing Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Boniface O. Fosu, S.-Y. Simon Wang, and Jin-Ho Yoon