Study finds the deep ocean hasn't experienced temperature shifts drastic enough to explain why global warming has slowed

Oct 7, 2014 20:03 GMT  ·  By
NASA study finds missing global warming heat is not hiding in the deep ocean
   NASA study finds missing global warming heat is not hiding in the deep ocean

This past October 6, scientists with NASA released a new report saying that, according to evidence at hand, the deep ocean hasn't experienced any major changes temperature-wise since 2005 until now.

This means that, contrary to previous assumptions, the fact that the deep ocean is absorbing heat from the atmosphere cannot explain why global warming has slowed, simply because such a heat exchange between water and air isn't taking place to begin with.

Monitoring the deep ocean

In a series of papers in the journal Nature Climate Change, the NASA scientists behind this research project explain that, as part of their study into how the deep ocean influences global warming, they compiled and analyzed data provided by 3,000 floating probes.

NASA's Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellites, together with the agency’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, also helped specialists gain a better understanding of what the deep ocean has been up to lately.

With the help of the floating devices and the satellites, the researchers were able to establish that, between the years 2005 and 2013, the global ocean below depths of 1.24 miles (1.9 kilometers) did not warm to a considerable extent.

This happened despite the fact that, during this time, global warming failed to progress as fast as before, a phenomenon that many assumed was due to the fact that the global ocean was absorbing all the heat, the NASA specialists go on to explain.

“The deep parts of the ocean are harder to measure. The combination of satellite and direct temperature data gives us a glimpse of how much sea level rise is due to deep warming. The answer is – not much,” specialist William Lovell said in a statement.

The mystery of the missing heat

Researchers say that, despite efforts to limit pollution, greenhouse gas emissions documented thus far in the 21st century are roughly the same as the ones reported the century before. However, it appears that, for some reason, average surface air temperatures aren't rising as fast as they should.

What's more, specialists say that, although it is true that the top half of global seas and oceans is gradually growing warmer, the increase in temperature documented in these waters is not nearly enough to match the documented increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.

Simply put, our good old planet is missing some heat, and scientists have no idea where it might be lurking or where to go looking for it. Still, it's important to note that this missing heat does not mean that global warming and climate change are fabrications.