tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20412547870472574702024-03-08T01:08:06.896-08:00Rising Sea Level1Green Thumbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14960796089036943537noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041254787047257470.post-33317357356869350812008-06-19T13:12:00.000-07:002008-06-19T13:22:20.458-07:00Sea Levels Rising Even Faster!As climate change continues to grab the headlines people aren't taking into full account the devestating effects that rising sea levels will have. After all, more that half of the population in The United States lives in coastal areas. Here is just a part of the report that was released just today...<br /><span id="midArticle_3"></span> <p>"We show that the rate of ocean warming from 1961 to 2003 is about 50 percent larger than previously reported," said team member Catia Domingues, from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research.</p><span id="midArticle_4"></span><span id="midArticle_8"></span> <p>Water also expands the warmer it becomes, pushing up sea levels, in addition from run-off from melting glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and parts of Antarctica.</p><span id="midArticle_0"></span> <p>Church said the global average surface warming between 1961 to 2003 was about 0.4 degrees Celsius according to his team's estimates and that seas rose on average 1.6 millimeters a year during this period.</p><span id="midArticle_1"></span> <p>RISING SEAS</p><span id="midArticle_2"></span> <p>But Church said that since 1993, sea levels had been rising more than 3 mm a year as the world consumes ever greater amounts of fossil fuels.</p><span id="midArticle_3"></span> <p>XBTs were widely used by commercial vessels but have since been largely replaced by satellites and permanent probes in the ocean. The disposable XBTs were thrown over the side with a wire attached to measure temperatures as it sank.</p><span id="midArticle_4"></span> <p>"If you miscalculate how quickly the instrument falls through the water column, you miscalculate the depth and therefore the temperature at that depth and that's the prime source of error," said Church.</p><span id="midArticle_5"></span> <p>So a colleague, Susan Wijffels and other associates, figured out a mathematical formula to correct the error.</p><span id="midArticle_6"></span> <p>That, combined with a wider statistical analysis of global ocean temperature data, revealed a clearer picture that better matched widely used computer models that project how the climate and oceans behave because of global warming.</p><span id="midArticle_7"></span> <p>"Now we see a more steady rate of warming and an increased trend in that warming," Church told Reuters.</p><span id="midArticle_8"></span> <p>"It builds confidence in the models that we use for projecting the future," adding that observations also indicated that the actual sea level rise was tracking on the upper end of those projections.</p><span id="midArticle_0"></span> <p>The U.N. Climate Panel's latest global assessment last year estimated sea levels could rise by up to 80 cm by the end of 2100 unless carbon dioxide levels were reined in.</p>I am sure these estimates will rise in the near future as the Arctic <a href="http://easygrowhouseplants.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-study-shows-arctic-is-melting-even.html">continues to melt away at record rates</a>!1Green Thumbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14960796089036943537noreply@blogger.com0