Oceans could mask the effects of global warming: Study
20 Sep 2011
Temperatures on earth are likely to stabilise for a period as deep ocean waters take up enough heat to mask the effects of global warming for up to a decade, according to a new study.
Earth's ''missing heat'' has never been explained as climate scientists, in the last decade saw greenhouse gas emissions increase steadily though without raising surface temperature as much as expected.
Scientists now believe the answer to the ''missing heat'' could lie in the fact that the world's oceans could mask the effects of global warming of decades.
The joint US-Australian study, based on computer simulations of global climate, suggests ocean layers over than 1,000 feet (300 meters) deep could be the main location of the "missing heat" during periods such as the past decade when global air temperatures showed little trend.
The study conducted by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia featured in the18 September issue of the journal Nature Climate Change.
Gerald Meehl, of NCAR who led the study said we would see global warming go through periods of hiatus in the future.
