Posted on 04/01/2005 9:49:17 PM PST by Brian328i
Earth's equator is sometimes viewed as a bit of a virtual wall that separates the climates of the northern and southern hemispheres.
Ocean currents, the main driver of climate, tend to confine themselves to one side or the other. When waters from North and South meet at the equator, they combine lazily and create an utter lack of wind known as the doldrums.
But a new study finds the climates in each half of the planet are linked by the oceans over the long run. Ocean circulation in the Southern Hemisphere has in the past adapted to sudden changes in the north, say researchers from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in Spain and the Cardiff University in the UK.
Several times in history, when the temperature increased in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere has entered a cooling period, which creates a decrease in the amount of deep water transported to the Atlantic Ocean from the south. When the climate cooled in the North Atlantic, the Southern Hemisphere entered a warmer period, causing water to be transported northwards.
The study is detailed in the April 1 issue of the journal Science.
Computer models had predicted the link. But this is the first time actual weather records have revealed it to be true.
The climates of Europe and North America are greatly influenced by the Gulf Stream, which carries warm water from the Gulf of Mexico north along the Florida coast, east across the Atlantic and south along the west coast of Europe. The warm water tends to moderate local climates.
The strength of the Gulf Stream's current is governed by how much salt is in the southbound water. If salinity decreases, the current weakens.
Previously, other scientists had modeled a possible effect of global warming: Melting of the Greenland ice sheet would add fresh water to the Atlantic and weaken the Gulf Stream. That would create a cooler, dryer climate in Europe and North America.
But the Atlantic might already be adapting to global warming in the same way as it adapted to climate changes in the past, say the authors of the new study. Southern Hemisphere waters are less salty than those in the northern hemisphere, and this freshwater in the south sinks to the ocean floor and is transported to the rest of the Atlantic, reducing the salinity of the North Atlantic Ocean and the strength of the gulf stream. Lately there has been a decrease in the amount of freshwater sinking to the floor of the South Atlantic Ocean.
"Although we don't know where global warming will take us, this could be a sign that the oceans are already adapting to the changes," said study team member Rainer Zahn.
By morons, yes. By anyone who suspects that air doesn't see imaginary lines drawn on the ocean, no.
Hey, hey, hey... Ya don't say?!?
Mt St. Helen's created more Pollution during it's eruption than 40 years of Automobile use.
Global Warming is as believable as the notion that starving to death is a "Euphoric" peaceful experience
Here, this whacked out "Mother Earther" seems to be crediting the Earth with prescient knowledge of future events.
Wow.
The whole Terri S thing made me lose faith in the medical (un)profession. And dumb@$$ discoveries like this that would make Einstien weep, Newton roll in his grave, and Watson and Crick gag, has dropped scientists below the level of used car salesman and barely above prostitutes.
Barely.
[...has dropped scientists below the level of used car salesman and barely above prostitutes.]
WOOOO-HOOOOOO! I'm moving up by comparison!
:^)
OMG! They've discovered...weather!
Dare I ask, what you do for a living? :)
BTTT
Are they really saying that the Atlantic and Pacific oceans extend above and below the equator? Wow! Time to recall all those geography textbooks and get this in them.
Unfortunately, the North Hemisphere's toilets drain the wrong way...
Sad, really..
Lets hope he's a salesman.
LOL, me too. :)
For the record, I rate most medical practitioners the same as murderers. Heck they probably are.
" Oooohhhh, I'm SO sorry Mrs. Smith but your baby will never live a fully healthy, loving, and fulfilling life because he has asthma. Plus we discovered in his genes that he has tendencies to vote for Reagan or Bush.
So, I am just going to ram this drill into your unborn son's head and suck his brain out. He'd have wanted it that way."
A doctor who runs a call-in show on Sunday AM's out here got a woman on the line who accused Doctors of not being in touch with life.
The doctor got indignant. How dare you accuse us of that we are doctors.
The logic was so vacant it was surreal to watch. We are doctors therefore we cannot harm life. Uhuh whatever.
The simplest way to prove that the call-in show doctor is lying is to see how many talking head medical "experts" are screreching about pulling Terri's tube. I can't name too many people who wanted her to live and the saddest part is that one of her most voiciferouis proponent is not even an American.
A frightening number of medical unprofessionals are brainwashed libtards, believing in "reproductive choice", "right to die", and all that rot. They treat the Hippocratic Oath the same way they do the US Constitution, as toilet paper.
Man I used to have so much respect for scientists and doctors. The biggest irony is that a third world doctor with herbal medicine and rudimentary tools probably cares more about life than our own doctors with the latest advancements in training and technology.
Libearals, they have the opposite midas touch. Everything that comes into their contact turns to $h!t.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.