HALF OF GLOBAL HEAT MAY BE HIDING IN THE OCEANS

Global warming's effect on oceans is greater than realized, researchers say (+video) Effect of climate change on upper-ocean temperatures has been underestimated by 24 to 58 percent, a study by NASA and Livermore Laboratory concludes.

Pete Spotts, October 6, 2014 (Christian Science Monitor)

“…[G]lobal warming's effect on upper ocean temperatures between 1970 and 2004 has been underestimated by 24 to 58 percent, largely the result of sparse long-term measurements in the southern oceans, [according to new research from Lawrence Livermore National] and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory…Getting ocean heating right is important for estimating the amount of sea-level rise caused by the expansion of seawater as it warms and the amount attributed to melting of land-based glaciers and ice sheets…Ocean heat storage also influences estimates of how sensitive the climate system is to changes in greenhouse-gas levels, a key piece of the puzzle climate models must have to project possible trajectories for human-triggered climate change…Just as the oceans absorb a significant proportion of the carbon-dioxide humans add to the atmosphere, mainly through burning fossil fuels, the oceans take up about 90 percent of the heat attributed to this build-up of greenhouse gases. Southern-hemisphere oceans represent about 60 percent of the world's oceans…[T]his new study represents ‘the first time that scientists have tried to estimate how much heat we've missed…’” click here for more

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