Where did the heat go?

[n2doc]

'Missing' heat may affect future climate change

Published: Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 15:22 in Earth & Climate
Current observational tools cannot account for roughly half of the heat that is believed to have built up on Earth in recent years, according to a "Perspectives" article in this week's issue of the journal Science. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., warn that satellite sensors, ocean floats, and other instruments are inadequate to track this "missing" heat, which may be building up in the deep oceans or elsewhere in the climate system.

"The heat will come back to haunt us sooner or later," says NCAR scientist Kevin Trenberth, the article's lead author.

"The reprieve we've had from warming temperatures in the last few years will not continue. It is critical to track the build-up of energy in our climate system so we can understand what is happening and predict our future climate."

The authors suggest that last year's rapid onset of El Niño, the periodic event in which upper ocean waters across much of the tropical Pacific Ocean become significantly warmer, may be one way in which the solar energy has reappeared.

more

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2010/04/15/missing.heat.may.affect.future.climate.change.0

[Roselma]

1. Huh? Hard to say where that heat went...maybe it

warmed the whole earth in the month of March:

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2910860

March 2010 warmest on record

Published: Thursday, April 15, 2010

WASHINGTON -- The combination of land and ocean temperatures across the world resulted in the warmest March since records began to be kept, about 130 years ago, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Thursday.

The NOAA said March's combined temperature of 13.5 C was 0.77 C above the global average in the 20th century, which was 12.7 C.

Individually, global ocean surface temperatures were also higher than any March on record at 16.5 C, up from 15.9 C recorded throughout the last century.

Land temperatures were recorded at 6.36 C, some 1.36 C higher than the global average in the 20th century.>>>>

More at the link above

[east texas lib]

2. So, the earth may have a Wigner release in the future?

Bummer.

[TheMadMonk]

3. Ice. It takes 80 times as much energy to melt ice as it does to heat it or water...

by 1 degree C.

It's the reason why a relatively small amount of ice in an ice chest can chill a large amount of warm beer.