Oceans Hid the Heat and Slowed Pace of Global Warming
The Atlantic and Southern oceans may be responsible for the slowdown in the acceleration of global warmingbut not for long.
Researchers use Argo floats (pictured) to help collect data.
Credit: Lieutenant Elizabeth Crapo, NOAA Corps
Newly published data suggest that a hiatus in rising global air temperatures in the 21st century is the result of heat sinks deep in the Atlantic and Southern oceans. The trend is likely connected to roughly 30-year global warming and cooling cycles, according to researchers.
The study could put to rest a long-standing debate among scientists about why air temperature rise had halted after a period of rapid increases at the end of the 20th century.
"We weren't surprised by the results, but this is the first time we've been able to prove it," said Ka-Kit Tung, a co-author of the study and adjunct professor of applied mathematics at the University of Washington.
Tung collaborated with Xianyao Chen of the Ocean University of China, a visiting professor at UW last year. Their study was published today in the journal Science .
The heat sink occurs when sun-warmed salty water from the tropics travels along ocean currents in the Atlantic to the coasts of Greenland and Iceland. When the saltier tropical water reaches the North Atlantic, its greater density causes it to sink, in a process called warm saltwater subduction.
"When [the water] sinks, it goes straight down, and the sinking carries heat along with it," Tung said.
About 90 percent of the Earth's heat is stored in the oceans due to the atmosphere's limited storage capacity, according to the study.
Full Article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/oceans-hid-the-heat-and-slowed-pace-of-global-warming/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/oceans-hid-the-heat-and-slowed-pace-of-global-warming/
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Just one more factor to be figured into the equation.