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[off camera] The last two year broke former global temperature records, so all eyes

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are on 2016. NASA just released its

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updated global temperature analysis for the first six months of the year.

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We have Dr. Compton Tucker with us to talk to us about

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the new findings. Thanks for joining us. [Tucker] I'm happy to be here

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Yes it's correct. What NASA has done is we've analyzed the surface temperature

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data for the first six months of every year and

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we found that January to June 2016 was the warmest

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first half of every year all the way back to 1880.

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[off camera] And what are some of the impacts of this heat?

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[Tucker] Some of the impacts we see when we look at the map where the warmer temperatures are

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they're all in the far north. And so NASA is also studying

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ice in the Arctic Ocean and ice in Greenland.

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[off camera] So NASA scientists are actually in the Arctic right now. How are they

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observing these changes?

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[Tucker] What NASA scientists are doing right now

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based out of Alaska, they have a project called Operation IceBridge

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where they fly NASA instruments, the same instruments we have on satellites

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They fly them in airplanes, so they are much closer to the surface

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They fly over the Arctic Ocean to study Arctic sea ice.

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They fly them over Greenland to study the ice sheet in Greenland.

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[off camera] How does the science help us plan for the future?

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[Tucker] It's important to collect observations so you understand what's happening

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and where it's happening. With satellites we go around the Earth

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every day, we have a lot of satellite data. We know about weather patterns

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and the jet stream. And we also know about droughts

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and we also know about forest fires. Because droughts and forest fires are

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caused both when it's very warm and it doesn't rain for

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a period of time. These are very important things to know

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about them. [off camera] Where can we go to learn more?

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[Tucker] You can learn more about this by going to hashtag #Earth

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Right Now. There's lots of information which NASA provides.

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[off camera] Thank you so much Dr. Compton Tucker. [Tucker] You're welcome.