{"id":40199,"date":"2018-11-06T08:59:19","date_gmt":"2018-11-06T13:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=40199"},"modified":"2018-11-06T08:59:19","modified_gmt":"2018-11-06T13:59:19","slug":"new-findings-on-ocean-warming-5-questions-answered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=40199","title":{"rendered":"New findings on ocean warming: 5 questions\u00a0answered"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"magazine\">\n<div class=\"magazine-title\">\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header class=\"grid-twelve large-grid-eleven\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"content-header-block\">\n<h3 class=\"entry-title instapaper_title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/new-findings-on-ocean-warming-5-questions-answered-106215\"><strong>New findings on ocean warming: 5 questions\u00a0answered<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<div class=\"wrapper\"><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption>The ocean absorbs about 90 percent of the excess heat produced as climate change warms the earth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<div class=\"grid-twelve large-grid-eleven\">\n<div class=\"grid-ten large-grid-nine grid-last content-body content entry-content instapaper_body\">\n<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: A <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41586-018-0651-8\">new study<\/a> by scientists in the United States, China, France and Germany estimates that the world\u2019s oceans have absorbed much more excess heat from human-induced climate change than researchers had estimated up to now. This finding suggests that global warming may be even more advanced than previously thought. Atmospheric scientist Scott Denning explains how the new report arrived at this result and what it implies about the pace of climate change.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>How do scientists measure ocean temperature and estimate how climate change is affecting it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>They use thermometers attached to thousands of bobbing robots floating at controlled depths throughout the oceans. This system of \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.argo.ucsd.edu\/About_Argo.html\">Argo floats<\/a>\u201d was launched in the year 2000 and there are now about 4,000 of the floating instruments.<\/p>\n<p>About once every 10 days, they cycle from the surface to a depth of 6,500 feet, then bob back up to the surface to transmit their data by satellite. Each year this network collects about 100,000 measurements of the three-dimensional temperature distribution of the oceans.<\/p>\n<p>The Argo measurements show that about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.climatecentral.org\/news\/global-warming-ocean-heat-18905\">93 percent<\/a> of the global warming caused by burning carbon for fuel is felt as changes in ocean temperature, while only a very small amount of this warming occurs in the air.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"align-center zoomable\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/243555\/original\/file-20181101-83626-110g8qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/243555\/original\/file-20181101-83626-110g8qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"enlarge_hint\"><\/div><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Normal cycle of an Argo float collecting ocean temperature and salinity data.<\/span> <span class=\"attribution\"><a class=\"source\" href=\"https:\/\/photos.google.com\/share\/AF1QipM3_44n8ZPxsLiOrBHLjI9oL0gYUpsJMn7SL6ciUWtd9Z34ou2lrbvy-k6cndEdWw\/photo\/AF1QipMxamxn3YmZ5b9eR40hqOCyArNYL8D7pWrUqlmL?key=YV8xUXhRR1k2NVB3bVZmYmZ0Y2RRVHZyZjVibndB\">International Argo Program<\/a>, <a class=\"license\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\">CC BY-ND<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>How dramatically do the findings in this study differ from levels of ocean warming that the <a href=\"http:\/\/ipcc.ch\/index.htm\">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<\/a> has reported?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The new study finds that since 1991, the oceans have warmed about 60 percent faster than the average rate of warming estimated by studies summarized by the IPCC, which are based on data from Argo floats. This is a big deal.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New findings on ocean warming: 5 questions\u00a0answered The ocean absorbs about 90 percent of the excess heat produced as climate change warms the earth. Editor\u2019s note: A new study by scientists in the United States, China, France and Germany estimates that the world\u2019s oceans have absorbed much more excess heat from human-induced climate change than [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[141,22830,1273,22829,8487],"class_list":["post-40199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-colorado-state-university","tag-ocean-warming","tag-scott-denning","tag-the-conversation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40200,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40199\/revisions\/40200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}