Oceans are NOT Warming

Here is another one of my posts that I had prepared last week before I left. Brett

One of the Argo system floating robots.

Several thousand aquatic robots that can dive 3000 feet down and measure ocean temperature have indicated that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past 4 to 5 years.

Even though some of the years since 2003 have been some of the warmest on record for the surface, its the oceans which really matter when it comes to global warming, says Josh Willis at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Up to 80-90% of global warming involves heating up ocean waters, which hold a lot more heat than what the atmopshere can. Since 2003, the robots have recorded no warming of the global oceans, but in fact, a very slight cooling. Willis feels that we may be in a period of less rapid warming.

Sea level rises when the oceans get warm because warmer water expands. This accounts for about half of global sea level rise. So with the oceans not warming, you would expect to see less sea level rise. Instead, sea level has risen about half an inch in the past four years. That's a lot, according to the NPR article. Willis says some of this water is apparently coming from a recent increase in the melting rate of glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica.

Willis says we cannot account for all of the sea level rise over the past 3-4 years, but one possibility is that the sea has warmed and expanded, but that scientists has misinterpreted the robot data.

So where is the extra heat going?

Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, says that it is probably going back out to space, or it may have gone even deeper into the ocean. Obviously, there are still a lot of unanswered questions in regards to this topic. Stay tuned.

Here is a link to the Argo homepage and the location of the robots across the oceans.