As the decadal ENSO cycle transitions to a warm phase, a new study expects accelerated global warming and a “hiatus” in Hadley Cell expansion.
As the decadal ENSO cycle transitions to a warm phase, a new study expects accelerated global warming and a “hiatus” in Hadley Cell expansion.
A new paper shows that global mean surface temperature (GMST) is a measure of the Earth’s surface warming, not a measure of total accumulated heat energy in the Earth’s system. And the slowdown in GMST increase is most likely a redistribution of excess heat into and within the ocean.
Earth’s surface air temperature has significantly increased over the 20th century, although this overall global warming has been punctuated by periods of weaker/stalled warming or even cooling. Research suggests shifts in the circulation of the Pacific Ocean and atmosphere have played a key role in the present hiatus’ development.
Much study has been devoted to the possible causes of a decrease in the upward trend of global surface temperatures since 1998, a phenomenon that has been dubbed the global warming “hiatus.” However, a new study by Karl et al. has called into question the underlying data used to detect the “hiatus”.
Global warming seems to have slowed over the past 15 years while the deep ocean has been observed in absorbing the heat instead. New research has found that transport of heat to the deep layers in the Atlantic and Southern Oceans could be one of the likely scenarios to the slowdown in global warming.
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