English: Surface air temperature change (2050s average minus 1971-2000 average), NOAA GFDL CM2.1 Climate Model, SRES A1B scenario. Description is based on the NOAA (2007a) public-domain source: This world map shows the projected change in annual mean surface air temperature from the late 20th century (1971-2000 average) to the middle 21st century (2051-2060 average). The change is in response to increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols based on a "middle of the road" estimate of future emissions. Future emissions are based on the "A1B" emissions scenario, taken from the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios. Warming is larger over continents than oceans, and is largest at high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. These results are from the GFDL CM2.1 model, but are consistent with a broad consensus of modeling results.

From the NOAA (2007b) public-domain source: The term “global warming” is commonly used to refer to surface air temperature changes that are a response to increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations. However, the warming is not expected to be uniform over the globe, nor is it expected to be the same during all seasons of the year. Computer model simulations conducted at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) and elsewhere project that GHG induced warming will be more rapid over land masses than over oceans. In the image, red colors indicate greater warming over the continents. White and blue-green colors mark areas with the least warming or slight cooling, found mostly over oceans. Additionally, the greatest warming is expected during the winter over northern North America and north-central Asia.

References:

• NOAA, January 2007b: GFDL Climate Modeling Research Highlights: Patterns of greenhouse warming (PDF), vol. 1, no. 6, revision 2/2/2007, 8:50.08 AM. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) - Princeton, NJ
• NOAA, 2007a: see citation for the image.