The study by University of Maryland scientists involved computer monitoring of over 2000 weather stations nationwide and comparing them to balloon and satellite data from the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
The researchers are currently extending their methodology from a national to global scope. “We expect to extend our study to obtain global results later this year, but these findings for the United States already suggest that land use changes may account for between a third and a half of the observed surface global warming,” said Eugenia Kalnay.