Posted on 05/02/2006 4:59:30 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - A nagging difference in temperature readings that had raised questions about global warming has been resolved, a panel of scientists reported Tuesday.
"This significant discrepancy no longer exists because errors in the satellite and radiosonde data have been identified and corrected," researchers said in the first of 21 assessment reports planned by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program.
The findings show clear evidence of human influences on climate due to changes in greenhouse gases, aerosols and stratospheric ozone.
There has been increasing concern about global climate change being caused by human activity, in particular the release of gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by automobiles and industrial activity.
But while temperature readings at the surface showed this increase, readings in the atmosphere taken by satellites and radiosondes — instruments carried by weather balloons — had shown little or no warming.
There are still some questions about the rate of atmospheric warming in the tropics, but overall the issue has been settled, said Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center.
The White House Council on Environmental Quality issued a statement saying that the climate change program was established to reduce scientific uncertainties and "we welcome today's report because it represents success in doing so with respect to temperature trends."
Findings of the report include:
• Since the 1950s all data show the Earth's surface and the low and middle atmosphere have warmed, while the upper stratosphere has cooled. Those changes were expected from computer models of the effects of greenhouse warming.
• Radiosonde readings for the midtroposphere — the nearest portion of the atmosphere — show it warming slightly faster than the surface, also an expected finding.
• The most recent satellite data also show tropospheric warming, though there is some disagreement among data sets. This may be caused by uncertainties in the observations, flaws in climate models or a combination. The researchers think it is a problem with the data collection.
• The observed patterns of change over the past 50 years cannot be explained by natural processes alone.
The report came a day after the government reported that the greenhouse gases widely blamed for raising the planet's temperature are still building up in the atmosphere.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday there was a continuing increase in carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide in the air last year, though methane leveled off. Overall, NOAA said, its annual greenhouse gas index "shows a continuing, steady rise in the amount of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere."
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On the Net:
U.S. Climate Change Science Program: http://www.climatescience.gov
National Climatic Data Center: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: http://www.noaa.gov
Thick pollution obscures the sky over Beijing in a November 2005 satellite image. Greenhouse gases -- the heat-trapping chemicals linked to global warming -- continued to increase steadily in 2005, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported on Monday. (NASA/Handout/Reuters)
I'm skeptical -- can you spell "fudge"?
It was probably even warmer about 1100 A.D. or so.
Pretty smoggy over China. Thank goodness Kyoto doesn't exempt them.
Man, this is right out of 1984.
Grant dollar$ are at stake here.
(George Soros says "Find some global warming or get in the unemployment line")
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I've also heard Leon Trotsky died of natural causes... |
"This significant discrepancy no longer exists because errors in the satellite and radiosonde data have been identified and corrected,"
If the thermometer mismatches with the model, the thermometer need be adjusted!
LOL. Probably did it with some statisticsology.
Nope, I will continue to drive my car.
"But while temperature readings at the surface showed this increase, readings in the atmosphere taken by satellites and radiosondes — instruments carried by weather balloons — had shown little or no warming."
Hmm...how much of those surface readings were taken in growing urban areas?
... as the last team of skeptical atmospheric researchers has been found and threatened into silence.
I wonder to what extent the referenced scientists considered our Molten Core, the Earths Magnetic Field, the Moon, Sunspots (or Solar activity) and the timing of the Solar activity, and our orbital relationship to the Sun. I personally believe that Mankind has no measurable comparable impact on the changing climate of the Earth. I wonder to what extent the scientists have a vested interest in man causing climate change; especially those engaged in free enterprise, in contrast to those who practice biomass burning and crude manufacturing, etc.? I remain skeptical.
It seems the reporter has no clue what the story really is! "They did something, but I didn't understand what!"
And Colbert had the gall to imply that the media doesn't push catastrophic, anthropogenic global warming.
Yeah, it's easier to recalibrate the thermometer than to put fudge factors in the models.
Mighty, mighty positive statements there about identifying the effect of SUV's and the rest of man's sinful actions.
I think there is some desperation now about keeping the gravy train rolling.
If I had their billions in grant money to spend, I could certainly have come up with some more convincing "global warming" than what they've done so far.
Most of them are at airports, at the edge of growing cities, prone to even faster urban warming than if they were downtown.
50 years, that is an astonishing number for a planet that has only been here for 6 billion years.
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