Recent Energy Balance of Earth
Robert S. Knox, David H. Douglass
.
DOI: 10.4236/ijg.2010.13013   PDF    HTML     11,471 Downloads   27,219 Views   Citations

Abstract

A recently published estimate of Earth’s global warming trend is 0.63 ± 0.28 W/m2, as calculated from ocean heat content anomaly data spanning 1993-2008. This value is not representative of the recent (2003-2008) warming/cooling rate because of a “flattening” that occurred around 2001-2002. Using only 2003-2008 data from Argo floats, we find by four different algorithms that the recent trend ranges from –0.010 to –0.161 W/m2 with a typical error bar of ±0.2 W/m2. These results fail to support the existence of a frequently-cited large positive computed radiative imbalance.

Share and Cite:

R. Knox and D. Douglass, "Recent Energy Balance of Earth," International Journal of Geosciences, Vol. 1 No. 3, 2010, pp. 99-101. doi: 10.4236/ijg.2010.13013.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1] J. M. Lyman et al., “Robust Warming of the Global Upper Ocean,” Nature, Vol. 465, May 2010, pp. 334-337.
[2] K. Trenberth and J. Fasullo, “Tracking Earth’s Energy,” Science, Vol. 328, March 2010, pp. 316-317.
[3] S. E. Wijffels et al., “Changing Expendable Bathythermograph Fall Rates and Their Impact on Estimates of Thermosteric Sea Level Rise,” Journal of Climate, Vol. 21, 2008, pp. 5657-5672.
[4] J. Willis, D. Chambers and R. Nerem, “Assessing the Globally Averaged Sea Level Budget on Seasonal to Interannual Timescales,” Journal of Geophysical Research A, Vol. 113, 2008, p. C06015.
[5] J. K. Willis, J. M. Lyman, G. C. Johnson and J. Gilson, “Correction to ‘Recent Cooling of the Upper Ocean’,” Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 34, July 2007, p. L16601.
[6] J. Willis (Private Communication, 20 February 2009. The last 5 months are preliminary.)
[7] R. Pielke, “A Broader View of the Role of Humans in the Climate System,” Physics Today, Vol. 61, No. 11, 2008, pp. 54-55.
[8] C. Loehle, “Cooling of the Global Ocean since 2003,” Energy and Environment, Vol. 20, No. 1-2, January 2009, pp. 101-104.
[9] D. H. Douglass and R. S. Knox, “Ocean Heat Content and Earth’s Radiation Imbalance,” Physics Letters A, Vol. 373, No. 36, August 2009, pp. 3296-3300.
[10] K. von Schuckmann, F. Gaillard and P.-Y. Le Traon, “Global Hydrographic Variability Patterns during 2003- 2008,” Journal of Geophysical Research C, Vol. 114, 2009, pp. 1-17.
[11] NOAA/NODC, 2010. ftp://ftp.nodc.noaa.gov/pub/data.nodc/woa/DATA_ANALYSIS/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/DATA/basin/yearly/h22-w0-700m.dat
[12] CRU, 2010. http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/hadsst2gl.txt
[13] R. T. Wetherald, R. J. Stouffer and K. W. Dixen, “Committed Warming and Its Implications for Climate Change,” Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 28, No. 8, 2001, pp. 1535- 1538.
[14] J. Hansen et al., “Earth’s Energy Imbalance: Confirmation and Implications,” Science, Vol. 308, No. 5727, June 2005, pp. 1431- 1435.
[15] R. A. Pielke, “Heat Storage within the Earth System,” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 84, No. 3, 2003, pp. 331-335.
[16] S. G. Purkey and G. C. Johnson, “Antarctic Bottom Water Warming between the 1990s and the 2000s: Contribution to Global Heat and Sea Level Rise Budgets,” Journal of Climate, in Press, 2010, doi: 10.1175/2010JCLI3682.1, Preliminary Version on Line.

Copyright © 2024 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Creative Commons License

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.