Auditing the Earth's sea-level and energy budgets
An international research team has balanced the sea-level rise budget by showing that the total amount of contributions to sea level rise explains the measured rise over recent decades.
Scientists have accounted for all the contributions to global sea-level rise in a study that balances the sea-level rise ‘budget’ and explains the observed rise over recent decades.
In work led by CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship scientists Drs John Church and Neil White and published in mid-September in the American Geophysical Union’s Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers also reviewed the related Earth’s energy budget – confirming that 90% of the energy stored in the climate system resides in the ocean and this warming drives one component of sea-level rise.
The international research team found that the two largest contributions to observed sea-level rise since 1972 came from ocean thermal expansion (about 40%) and glacier melting (another 35%). The remainder is from changes in the ice sheets and terrestrial storage in reservoirs and extraction of groundwater from aquifers.
The new research resolves an issue evident in past IPCC Assessments in which the actual observed rise over recent decades was larger than the sum of contributions to sea-level rise, raising concern that the IPCC may have underestimated future rise.
“There are many factors contributing to sea-level rise, including changing groundwater storage, thermal expansion of the oceans, and melting glaciers and ice sheets,” says Dr Church.
“Closing the sea-level budget required accurate estimates of ocean warming, by far the largest storage of heat in the Earth’s climate system
“The sum of contributions has been less than the observed rise. To resolve this, we revisited the Earth’s sea-level and energy budgets together using new and updated estimates of all contributing factors for the past few decades, and including a new estimate of groundwater depletion. This allowed us to balance the sea-level budget from 1972 to the present,” Dr Church said.
He said that sea-level rise and ocean warming had continued to increase up to the present time, in concert with increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. However, aerosols have the potential to partially mask the effects on global temperature of balancing the Earth’s energy budget. An increase in aerosol emissions, probably from developing countries, and moderate volcanic activity are inferred from the result.
More information: Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2011GL048794
Provided by
CSIRO
-
From lemons to lemonade: Reaction uses carbon dioxide to make carbon-based semiconductor,
32 comments
-
Thioridazine kills cancer stem cells in human while avoiding toxic side-effects of conventional cancer treatments,
3 comments
-
SpaceX private rocket blasts off for space station (Update),
42 comments
-
Climate scientists say they have solved riddle of rising sea,
31 comments
-
SpaceX capsule has 'new car' smell, astronauts say (Update),
4 comments
-
Hypothetical desert earth
16 hours ago
-
More human population = greater mass?
May 25, 2012
-
Conversion from aircraft bearing to normal degrees
May 23, 2012
-
Interpretation/Analysis of the Lab results(HEPA filter)
May 22, 2012
-
Has anyone here attended the The Urbino Summer School in Paleoclimatology?
May 22, 2012
-
Earthquakes: Mag 6 N. Italy and Mag 5.6 W. Bulgaria
May 21, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - Earth
More news stories
Yale study concludes public apathy over climate change unrelated to science literacy
Are members of the public divided about climate change because they don't understand the science behind it? If Americans knew more basic science and were more proficient in technical reasoning, would public consensus match ...
1 hour ago |
not rated yet |
8
|
10 million years needed to recover from mass extinction
It took some 10 million years for Earth to recover from the greatest mass extinction of all time, latest research has revealed.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
1 hour ago |
not rated yet |
1
|
Sophisticated simulations predict future warming
The chances of our planet being hit by a global warming of 3 degrees Celsius by 2050 is as likely as it being hit by an increase of 1.4 degrees, new research shows. Presented in the journal Nature Geoscience, the British study ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 22, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (9) |
51
Aliens don't want to eat us, says former SETI director
Alien life probably isn’t interested in having us for dinner, enslaving us or laying eggs in our bellies, according to a recent statement by former SETI director Jill Tarter.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 25, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (14) |
39
Kyoto Protocol architect 'frustrated' by climate dialogue
UN climate talks are going nowhere, as politicians dither or bicker while the pace of warming dangerously speeds up, one of the architects of the Kyoto Protocol told AFP.
May 23, 2012 |
3.7 / 5 (7) |
39
'Unzipped' carbon nanotubes could help energize fuel cells, batteries
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could replace some of the expensive platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to scientists at ...
T cells 'hunt' parasites like animal predators seek prey, study shows
By pairing an intimate knowledge of immune-system function with a deep understanding of statistical physics, a cross-disciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania has arrived at a surprising finding: T cells use a movement ...
Computer model used to pinpoint prime materials for efficient carbon capture
When power plants begin capturing their carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases – and to most in the electric power industry, it's a question of when, not if – it will be an expensive undertaking.
Change in developmental timing was crucial in the evolutionary shift from dinosaurs to birds: study
At first glance, it's hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common. After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that ...
Same gene that stunts infants' growth also makes them grow too big: research
UCLA geneticists have identified the mutation responsible for IMAGe* syndrome, a rare disorder that stunts infants' growth. The twist? The mutation occurs on the same gene that causes Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, which makes ...
Scientists develop ultra-sensitive test that detects diseases in their earliest stages
Scientists have developed an ultra-sensitive test that should enable them to detect signs of a disease in its earliest stages, in research published today in the journal Nature Materials.
Nov 04, 2011
Rank: 2.3 / 5 (6)
Sorry, but that is obviously not a valid theory. Keeping in mind that northern and southern hemispheres do not mix well, and that most of the aerosols in question are in the north, then the cooling should be in the north. It hasn't been. To the contrary, the Northern hemisphere and specifically the regions with the most aerosols, have seen continued and more severe warming.
There must be some other explanation than aerosols. These people need to check the literature. This has been talked about quite a lot lately, and most prominent experts have dismissed the aerosol masking.
Nov 04, 2011
Rank: 2.6 / 5 (5)
Of course that is a double edged sword, because if the ocean can slow a decade of warming then it can also artificially amplify a dacade of warming. It creates as many questions as it does answers, in regard to century scale trends, if it is the true answer.
Of course this idea isn't universally accepted by the experts either. I believe Mike Mann is one who doesn't agree. I think he simply favors the idea that a decade of stalled warming is totally to be expected and that it will happen every so often, despite a longer scale trend in warming.
Nov 04, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
Only if aerosols are the only factor. Maybe they are a mitigating factor and the warming would be even more sever if they were not present? Just saying that you can't dismiss this on the grounds of a mono-causal argument.
Nov 04, 2011
Rank: 3 / 5 (4)
Well, I'll leave that up to the experts. I was just pointing out that there has been a lot of discussion about this amongst the top experts recently, and the idea that aerosols are the cause of the warming pause isn't a popular one. There are papers about it. If you check RealClimate, I think you'll find discussions there about why the aerosols aren't a good fit to the observations.
Nov 04, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (2)
Nov 05, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (3)
Basically all effects of massive global warming from greenhouse gas build up.
Nuff said.
Nov 07, 2011
Rank: 2 / 5 (4)
How does ground water use have anything to do with GHG's?
Nuff said.
Nov 07, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
Ummm...extra sea level rise due to water shifting to the oceans instead the aquifers....
Nov 08, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
That is an inconsequential, probably too small to measure, effect, and it has nothing to do with greenhouse gasses. The main effect of ground water depletion is called land subsidence. Areas where ground water is depleted will sink. The same thing happens when oil and natural gas are harvested, but that isn't as widespread or high volume. Places like Boston are seeing the damaging effects of this as the land falls relative to sea level, and salt water intrudes into the vacant aquifers once the fresh water is pumped out. New York doesn't see much of this problem because Manhattan sits mostly on bedrock and they do not have ground water there to pump out (not much anyway).
Besides, the amount of ground water we have pumped up is likely dwarfed by the amount of water we are storing in reservoirs and behind dams.