H17482
Headlines : EnvironmentSolar Variability: Striking A Balance With Climate Change
Over the past century, Earth’s average temperature has increased by approximately 0.6 degrees Celsius (1.1 degrees Fahrenheit). Solar heating accounts for about 0.15 C, or 25 percent, of this change, according to computer modeling results published by NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies researcher David Rind in 2004.
“Greenhouse gases block about 40 percent of outgoing thermal radiation that emanates from Earth,” Woods said. The resulting imbalance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing thermal radiation will likely cause Earth to heat up over the next century, accelerating the melting polar ice caps, causing sea levels to rise and increasing the probability of more violent global weather patterns.
[Posted By Livingston]Republished from www.sciencedaily.com
“For the last 20 to 30 years, we believe greenhouse gases have been the dominant influence on recent climate change,” said Robert Cahalan, climatologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
For the past three decades NASA scientists have investigated the unique relationship between the sun and Earth. Using space-based tools, like the Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE), they have studied how much solar energy illuminates Earth, and explored what happens to that energy once it penetrates the atmosphere. The amount of energy that reaches Earth’s outer atmosphere is called the total solar irradiance. Total solar irradiance is variable over many different timescales, ranging from seconds to centuries due to changes in solar activity.
Posted by Livingston
jimmy "says":http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-541748/Were-doomed-40-years-global-catastrophe--theres-NOTHING-says-climate-change-expert.html less than 40 years Time to bring it down again Don't just call me pessimist Try and read between the...
according to computer modeling results published by NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies researcher David Rind in 2004.
Can these computer models reverse-predict ice ages, I wonder?
Liv thanks for the climate change basics article, more recommended reading for the G’s.
The potential cooling, especially in temperate climes, of temperatures is still tied pretty closely to the average warming of the planet—the warming in the arctic and the antarctic is significant enough that though the result may appear to be a cooling in some climes, the AVERAGE of the global temps is climbing. Climate change basics, not new news either….
And as far as computer models go, the big news is that the changes are happening (especially due to the negative feedback loops in areas like the Arctic Ocean) faster than most modeling has predicted.