A little book ‘Rough Guide to Weather’ by Robert Henson states that:
1. The most prevalent greenhouse gas is water vapour
2. As temperatures rise, the oceans warm up and release extra water vapour
3. This water vapour then absorbs energy and radiates some of it to the ground, thus helping global temperatures to rise even more
So the idea is that the warming effects of carbon dioxide will be amplified by increasing water vapour.
But this is NOT what the latest data from the latest satellite shows.
Data from NASA’s Aqua Satellite, which was only launched in 2002, shows that water vapour and high altitude cloud cover don’t necessarily increase when there is warming. Rather weather processes limit the total greenhouse effect in proportion to available sunlight. This can happen in a variety of ways through the hydrological cycle, for example low level clouds release water vapour from the atmosphere when it rains.
The new data from the Aqua Satellite was probably the most important issue discussed at the recent ‘2008 International Conference on Climate Change’. The new findings were part of a presentation by Roy Spencer who leads the team analysing all the data from NASA’s Aqua Satellite.
I have previously mentioned these findings in a blog post and a recent article in OLO but the importance of the finding for climate change science and policy seems to not be understood – or ignored.
These findings are not being disputed by the meteorological community and will require an overhaul of current UN IPCC climate models.
I will talk about this issue this afternoon in an interview with Michael Duffy on ABC Radio National’s Counterpoint at 4pm Sydney time (about 5 hours from now). Those in other parts of the world can listen through the internet – find out how at the Counterpoint link here.
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My first blog post on ‘global warming for dummies’ was posted some time ago and was also about the temperature record:
October 26, 2005
Global Warming for Dummies
https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/000959.html
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.