(CN) - NASA scientists found 2011 was the ninth warmest year since 1880, saying their analysis shows a long-term trend of rising global temperatures.
     Nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000, NASA announced Thursday.
     Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York found the average global temperature in 2011 was 0.92 degrees F warmer than a mid-20th century baseline temperature, according to a NASA release.
     "We know the planet is absorbing more energy than it is emitting," GISS director James Hansen said in a statement. "So we are continuing to see a trend toward higher temperatures. Even with the cooling effects of a strong La Nina influence and low solar activity for the past several years, 2011 was one of the 10 warmest years on record."
     Hansen said the first 11 years of the 21st century experienced higher temperatures compared to the latter part of the 20th century. He expects record-breaking worldwide temperatures in the next few years because of increased solar activity and the next El Nino will cause a rise in tropical Pacific temperatures, according to the release.
     "It's always dangerous to make predictions about El Nino, but it's safe to say we'll see one in the next three years," Hansen said. "It won't take a very strong El Nino to push temperatures above 2010."
     According to NASA, 2011 was .22 degrees F warmer than 2010, the hottest year on record. Global temperatures are not expected to rise year after year, but will gradually increase over decades, NASA claims.
     NASA says the higher temperatures are being sustained by increased greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, which traps heat in the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was about 285 parts per million when the GISS began recording global temperatures in 1880, according to the report. In 1960, the level had risen to about 315 parts per million, and today it exceeds 390 parts per million, NASA claims.
     GISS collected weather data from more than 1,000 meteorological stations, satellite readings of ocean surface temperature and research station observations in Antarctica to produce the temperature analysis, according to NASA.