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Global Warming Drop in ocean water temperatures indicate uneven warming trends
23/Sep/2006: A study carried out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), found that the average ocean water temperatures around the world has dropped slightly in the period 2003 to 2005, when compared to previous years.
This new cooling trend follows the decade-long warming trend that lasted from 1993 to 2003. Researchers involved in this study found that the volume of earth’s ocean to a depth of about 760 meters warmed by 0.089 degree Celsius during the period 1993 to 2003, but the average temperatures fell by 0.03 degree Celsius in the period 2003 to 2005.
Josh Wills, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the co-author of this study said that the global warming trends are intermittent with occasional periods of cooling. He also added that the oceans today are much warmer than they were in 1980’s and the cooling of oceans could be a temporary effect caused by natural climate variability. Scientist and environmentalists around the world expect the warming of the oceans to continue in response to climate change induced by global warming.
Ocean temperatures provide much valuable information to the scientists, as 84% of the heat absorbed by the Earth eventually end up warming the oceans. So measuring the ocean temperatures helps us to quantify the effects of global warming. Understanding the trends of global warming is essential for the scientists to design and develop computer models for predicting earth’s climate.
Another interesting fact that came out of this research was, even though ocean temperatures dropped in the period 2003 to 2005, glaciers and ice sheets in the poles continued to melt, raising the sea levels across the world. This research is a part of a U.S Science and Technology program that aims at understanding climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible for global warming.
Kesavan Siva
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