NASA and NOAA Discover 2014 was the Warmest Year on Record (VIDEO)

It turns out that the year 2014 was Earth's warmest year on record since 1880. NASA and NOAA have found that this past year was a global scorcher, and that the 10 warmest years on record, with the exception of 1998, have occurred since the year 2000.

"NASA is at the forefront of the scientific investigation of the dynamics of the Earth's climate on a global scale," said John Grunsfeld, one of the researchers, in a news release. "The observed long-term warming trend and the ranking of 2014 as the warmest year on record reinforces the importance for NASA to study Earth as a complete system, and particularly to understand the role and impacts of human activity."

Since 1880, Earth's average surface temperature has warmed by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit. This trend is largely driven by an increase in carbon dioxide and other human emissions into the planet's atmosphere.

"This is the latest in a series of warm years, in a series of warm decades," said Gavin Schmidt, GISS Director. "While the ranking of individual years can be affected by chaotic weather patterns, the long-term trends are attributable to drivers of climate change that right now are dominated by human emissions of greenhouse gases."

The year of 2014 continued the planet's long-term warming trend; however, it's important to keep in mind that there are year-to-year fluctuations in average global temperature caused by weather phenomena that can warm or cool the tropical Pacific. This last year's rise in temperatures occurred during a "neutral" year, which means that no weather phenomena were largely responsible for the temperatures.

Both NASA and NOAA plan to continue monitoring global temperatures for years to come. These latest analyses, though, show that something needs to be done when it comes to curtailing warming temperatures-especially because they're largely due to human-induced emissions.

For the data set of 2014 surface temperature measurements, you can visit NASA's website.

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