Experts: New Data Show Global Warming

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2005/apr/28/042807225.html

NEW YORK (AP) - Climate scientists armed with new data from the ocean depths and from space satellites have found that Earth is absorbing much more heat than it is giving off, which they say validates computer projections of global warming.

Lead scientist James Hansen, a prominent NASA climatologist, described the findings on the planet's out-of-balance energy exchange as a "smoking gun" that should dispel doubts about forecasts of climate change. A European climate expert called it a valuable contribution to climate research.

Hansen's team, reporting Thursday in the journal Science, said they also determined that global temperatures will rise 1 degree Fahrenheit this century even if greenhouse gases are capped tomorrow.

If carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping emissions instead continue to grow, as expected, things could spin "out of our control," especially as ocean levels rise from melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the researchers said. International experts predict a 10-degree leap in Fahrenheit readings in such a worst-case scenario.

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[Viking12]

1. This week's Science isn't online yet

I went to read the article but SciMag Online is still hosting April 22 as the current issue. I'll post abstract and selections when it is updated.

[jpak]

2. Did the same thing

Saw my friend's paper finally came out...

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/308/5721/545

Warming of the Eurasian Landmass Is Making the Arabian Sea More Productive

Joaquim I. Goes,1* Prasad G. Thoppil,2 Helga do R Gomes,1 John T. Fasullo3


The recent trend of declining winter and spring snow cover over Eurasia is causing a land-ocean thermal gradient that is particularly favorable to stronger southwest (summer) monsoon winds. Since 1997, sea surface winds have been strengthening over the western Arabian Sea. This escalation in the intensity of summer monsoon winds, accompanied by enhanced upwelling and an increase of more than 350% in average summertime phytoplankton biomass along the coast and over 300% offshore, raises the possibility that the current warming trend of the Eurasian landmass is making the Arabian Sea more productive.

[jpak]

3. The abstract is out

Earth's Energy Imbalance: Confirmation and Implications


James Hansen 1*, Larissa Nazarenko 1, Reto Ruedy 2, Makiko Sato 1, Josh Willis 3, Anthony Del Genio 4, Dorothy Koch 1, Andrew Lacis 4, Ken Lo 2, Surabi Menon 5, Tica Novakov 5, Judith Perlwitz 1, Gary Russell 6, Gavin A. Schmidt 1, Nicholas Tausnev 2

<snip>

Our climate model, driven mainly by increasing human-made greenhouse gases and aerosols among other forcings, calculates that Earth is now absorbing 0.85 ± 0.15 W/m2 more energy from the Sun than it is emitting to space. This imbalance is confirmed by precise measurements of increasing ocean heat content over the past 10 years. Implications include: (i) expectation of additional global warming of about 0.6°C without further change of atmospheric composition; (ii) confirmation of the climate system's lag in responding to forcings, implying the need for anticipatory actions to avoid any specified level of climate change; and (iii) likelihood of acceleration of ice sheet disintegration and sea level rise.