NEW STUDY FINDS OCEAN SIGNIFICANTLY WARMER IN LAST 16 YEARS

An article appearing in Science Daily on 5/22/2010 reports:  "The energy stored (in upper ocen levels) is enough to power nearly 500 100-watt light bulbs per each of the roughly 6.7 billion people on the planet."  (Apparently the ocean is storing more heat than it gives off.) 

"The ocean is the biggest reservoir for heat in the climate system," said Josh Willis, an oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and one of the scientists who contributed to the study. "So as the planet warms, we're finding that 80 to 90 percent of the increased heat ends up in the ocean."

Seawater expands and takes up more space as it heats up thus, scientists say, that this expansion accounts for about one-third to one-half of global sea level rise.

"Data from the array of Argo floats­ -- deployed by NOAA and other U.S. and international partners ­- greatly reduce the uncertainties in estimates of ocean heat content over the past several years, the team said. There are now more than 3,200 Argo floats distributed throughout the world's ocean sending back information via satellite on temperature, salinity, currents and other ocean properties. "   If you would like to read the whole article,    If you would like to read the whole article, click here.

To read about how bad it can get, click here.