Study Shows Ocean Warming Has Accelerated The Past 100 Years

Increased warming from changing  ocean currents has accelerated over the past 100 years and could ultimately affect climate patterns over much of the world, according to research by two Texas A&M University oceanographers.

Ping Chang and Benjamin Giese, professors in the Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M, are part of a team that analyzed ocean temperature and current data since 1900. Their work is part of a multinational team that included researchers from the Ocean University of China, NOAA, the University of Hawaii, the University of Colorado, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of Tokyo, the Ocean University of China and scientists in Germany and Australia.  Results of the team’s study have been published in the journal Nature Climate Science.

A wall of warm air rises up from the Gulf Stream as it moves along the North American coastline

The Texas A&M research team found that parts of the world’s oceans are warming at an accelerated rate, showing a global warming “signature” in the ocean. The warming trend in some parts of the oceans is twice as large as the global average, the researchers have discovered.

“Certain parts of the oceans are getting warmer much faster than others,” Giese explains, “and it shows that there are significant regional differences in warming. The difference is from 0.5 to more than 1.5 degrees, and while that may seem small, it is a large change compared with the historical data over the past 100 years.”

Chang says the rising temperatures are possibly attributed to ocean circulation changes, which are likely caused by changes in atmospheric circulation, especially in the winds over the oceans.

“If this trend continues,” he says, “it could have a potential impact on the occurrence of extreme climate events, such as winter storms, in these regions because the atmospheric circulation is affected by sea-surface temperatures. These changes in ocean circulation could also have an impact on marine ecosystems.”

They say that the most severely affected areas of rising ocean temperatures are off the coast of Australia, near the Philippines, the Gulf Stream from Florida to New England, the Brazil current and the Kuroshio current, which is similar to the Gulf Stream but located in the Pacific Ocean near Japan.

The two Texas A&M researchers say the rising temperatures would probably not affect conditions of an El Niño or La Niña event.

“It is difficult to determine how these changes will affect global weather patterns,” Chang explains, “and it is more likely that regional climate extremes will be affected by these rising temperatures.”

The warming trend could pose problems for sensitive marine areas, Giese notes.

“People in Australia are worried about it because it could have an impact on its Great Barrier Reef,” he notes. “Any rise in temperature might damage the sensitive ecosystems of the reef.” At 1,800 miles long, the Great Barrier Reef is so large it can be seen from space.

The team’s work was funded by the China National Key Basic Research Project, the Australian Climate Change Science Program, the Southeast Australia Climate Initiative, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the National Science Foundation.

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About research at Texas A&M University: As one of the world’s leading research institutions, Texas A&M is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge, including that of science and technology. Research conducted at Texas A&M represents an annual investment of more than $630 million, which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school, and underwrites approximately 3,500 sponsored projects. That research creates new knowledge that provides basic, fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state, nation and world.

Media contact: Keith Randall, News & Information Services, at (979) 845-4644 or  Benjamin Giese at (979) 845-2306 or Ping Chang at (979) 845-8196

International Symposium To Focus On Ozone Layer And Climate Protection Nov. 7-10

An international conference, “2011 IYC Symposium on Stratospheric Ozone and Climate Change,” will be convened in Washington, D.C. Nov. 7-10. This event focuses on the outcomes of the 1987 Montreal Protocol, an international treaty to reduce ozone depleting substances in the atmosphere. It also celebrates the 1990 signing of the Clean Air Act Amendment (CAAA) of 1990 by George Bush, 41^st President of the United States, designed to protect air quality and environment.

The four-day symposium features presentations and policy statements by presidents of major scientific societies, policymakers and noted scientists from government, higher education, industry and nonprofit organizations. All sessions will be held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center Atrium Ballroom at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., just a few blocks from the White House.

“This symposium will be an important event on climate change,” says Renyi Zhang, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M and the event organizer. “Because this is the International Year of Chemistry (IYC), we hope to raise public awareness of how clean-air issues affect atmospheric conditions all over the world, and how billions of people can be adversely impacted,” Zhang adds. “The discussions and collaborations expected at these meetings could lead to policies that will have far-reaching consequences.

“The conference will recognize the contributions of scientists, industry and governmental agencies to identify and counteract the threats from halocarbons posted to the Earth’s ozone layer,” Zhang notes. “We hope these collaborations may offer useful lessons that might help address the larger challenges of climate change.”

A special section of the symposium, scheduled for Nov. 8, commemorates the 21st anniversary of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. Sponsored by the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M, the Tuesday morning event features a video presentation from President Bush and a discussion by key players involved in the historic act, one of the former president’s many significant accomplishments. The Bush School is a co-sponsor of the symposium.

The amendment, signed by Bush in his second year in office, broke a 13-year legislative logjam on the issue. It has resulted in reduced sulfur dioxide levels by 10 million tons to below 1980 levels and toxic air emissions by more than 75 percent and has eliminated 30 million tons of dangerous chemicals and pollutants from the atmosphere. A 2010 report from the Environmental Protection Agency found that the amendments of 1990 “prevented 23,000 Americans from dying prematurely and averted more than 1.7 million incidences of asthma attacks, prevented 67,000 incidences of chronic bronchitis and prevented more than 4 million lost work days.” The report concluded that the benefits from the Clean Air Act exceeded their costs by a margin of 4 to 1. The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments added provisions to phase out production of chemicals that deplete the ozone layer.

“There is increasing evidence that the benefits of the Montreal Protocol and the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 extend also to climate protection because the industrially produced chemicals responsible for depleting the ozone layer are also important greenhouse gases, which potentially contribute to global warming,” Zhang adds.

Keynote speakers include Ralph Cicerone, president of National Academy of Sciences; Mario J. Molina, 1995 Nobel laureate in chemistry; Robert T. Watson, chief scientific adviser of Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of the United Kingdom and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; C. Boyden Gray, White House Counsel (1989-93); Susan Solomon, winner of the National Medal of Science; and William K. Reilly, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1989-93).

The opening session will feature the presidents of four scientific societies giving their statements on environmental protection and climate change: Nancy Jackson, president, American Chemical Society; Michael McPhaden, president of the American Geophysical Union; Jonathan Malay, president of the American Meteorological Society; and Michael Jarraud, secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization.

Funding agencies for the symposium include the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, NASA, the World Meteorological Organization and World Climate Research Program and Texas A&M and its College of Geosciences, the Division of Research and Vice President for Research, along with the Bush School. In addition to Texas A&M, the primary co-sponsors of this event are American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union and American Chemical Society.

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About Research at Texas A&M University: As one of the world’s leading research institutions, Texas A&M is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge, including that of science and technology. Research conducted at Texas A&M represents an annual investment of more than $630 million, which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school, and underwrites approximately 3,500 sponsored projects. That research creates new knowledge that provides basic, fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state, nation and world.

Media contact:  Keith Randall, News & Information Services, at (979) 845-4644 or keith-randall@tamu.edu; Karen Riedel, College of Geosciences Communications at (979) 845-0910 or kriedel@tamu.edu; or Renyi Zhang at (979) 845-7656 or zhang@ariel.met. tamu.edu

Geosciences Prof Says Study Shows That Clouds Don’t Cause Climate Change

COLLEGE STATION, Sept. 6, 2011 — Clouds only amplify climate change, says a Texas A&M University professor in a study that rebuts recent claims that clouds are actually the root cause of climate change.

Andrew Dessler, a Texas A&M atmospheric sciences professor considered one of the nation’s experts on climate variations, says decades of data support the mainstream and long-held view that clouds are primarily acting as a so-called “feedback” that amplifies warming from human activity. His work is published today in the American Geophysical Union’s peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Dessler studied El Niño and La Niña cycles over the past 10 years and calculated the Earth’s “energy budget” over this time. El Nino and La Nina are cyclical events, roughly every five years, when waters in the central Pacific Ocean tend to get warmer or colder. These changes have a huge impact on much of the world’s weather systems for months or even years.

Dessler found that clouds played a very small role in initiating these climate variations — in agreement, he says, with mainstream climate science and in direct opposition to some previous claims.

“The bottom line is that clouds have not replaced humans as the cause of the recent warming the Earth is experiencing,” Dessler says.

Texas is currently in one of the worst droughts in the state’s history, and most scientists believe it is a direct result of La Niña conditions that have lingered in the Pacific Ocean for many months.

Dessler adds, “Over a century, however, clouds can indeed play an important role amplifying climate change.”

“I hope my analysis puts an end to this claim that clouds are causing climate change,” he adds.

For more information about Dessler’s research, go to http://goo.gl/zFJmt

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About Research at Texas A&M University: As one of the world’s leading research institutions, Texas A&M is in the vanguard in making significant contributions to the storehouse of knowledge, including that of science and technology. Research conducted at Texas A&M represents an annual investment of more than $630 million, which ranks third nationally for universities without a medical school, and underwrites approximately 3,500 sponsored projects. That research creates new knowledge that provides basic, fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state, nation and world.

Contact: Andrew Dessler at (979) 862-1427 or adessler@tamu.edu; or Keith Randall, News & Information Services, at (979) 845-4644 or keith-randall@tamu.edu