What is missing in this discussion
is how the Antarctic in particular drains this surplus accumulated heat and puts
it all back in balance. The core of Antarctica is a close as one can get to the chill of
space and the continent acts as our heat sink.
The Arctic is a pleasant side
show that waxes and wanes as heat is pumped into it through the Gulf Stream .
Because it is an ocean basin, all the winter ice remains afloat and
eventually is removed, however long it may take.
At least we can now put the
problem of missing heat to rest as the calculations have been nicely tightened
up.
NASA Study Solves Case of Earth's 'Missing Energy'
by Staff Writers
Cumulus cloudstransport energy away from Earth's surface.
Two years ago, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric
Research in Boulder, Colo., released a study claiming that inconsistencies
between satellite observations of
Earth's heat and measurements of ocean heating amounted to evidence of
"missing energy" in the planet's system.
Where was it going? Or, they wondered, was something wrong with the
way researchers tracked energy as it was absorbed from the sun and emitted back
into space? [always the better question]
An international team of atmospheric scientists and oceanographers, led
by Norman Loeb of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and including
Graeme Stephens of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., set
out to investigate the mystery.
They used 10 years of data - spanning 2001 to 2010 - from NASA
Langley's orbiting Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System Experiment
(CERES) instruments to measure changes in the net radiation balance at the top
of Earth's atmosphere. The CERES data were then combined with estimates of the
heat content of Earth's ocean from three independent ocean-sensor sources.
Their analysis, summarized in a NASA-led study published Jan. 22 in the
journal Nature Geosciences, found that the satellite and ocean measurements
are, in fact, in broad agreement once observational uncertainties are factored
in.
"One of the things we wanted to do was a more rigorous analysis of
the uncertainties," Loeb said. "When we did that, we found the
conclusion of missing energy in the system isn't really supported by the
data."
"Missing Energy" is in the Ocean
"Our data show that Earth has been accumulating heat in the ocean at a rate of half a watt per square meter (10.8 square feet), with no sign of a decline," Loeb said. "This extra energy will eventually find its way back into the atmosphere and increase temperatures on Earth."
Scientists generally agree that 90 percent of the excess heat
associated with increases in greenhouse gas concentrations gets stored in
Earth's ocean. If released back into the atmosphere, a half-watt per square
meter accumulation of heat could increase global temperatures by 0.3 or more
degrees centigrade (0.54 degree Fahrenheit).
Loeb said the findings demonstrate the importance of using multiple
measuring systems over
time, and illustrate the need for continuous improvement in the way Earth's
energy flows are measured.
The science team at the National Center for Atmospheric Research
measured inconsistencies from 2004 and 2009 between satellite observations of
Earth's heat balance and measurements of the rate of upper ocean heating from
temperatures in the upper 700 meters (2,300 feet) of the ocean. They said the
inconsistencies were evidence of "missing energy."
Other authors of the paper are from the University
of Hawaii , the PacificMarine Environmental Laboratory in
Seattle , the University
of Reading United Kingdom University of Miami
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