Page 28 - Aruba Today
P. 28
A28
SCIENCETuesday 8 March 2016
Revamped satellite data shows no pause in global warming
SETH BORENSTEIN In this May 24, 2015 file photo, a man pours water on his face during a hot summer day in well supported in a study in
AP Science Writer Hyderabad, India. the American Meteorologi-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cli- cal Society’s Journal of Cli-
mate change doubters Associated Press mate.
may have lost one of their
key talking points: a partic- The satellites are in a polar temperatures warmer, oth- wouldn’t have done the The study refutes the idea
ular satellite temperature orbit, so they are supposed ers cooler. Three satellites upgrade.” of a pause in global warm-
dataset that had seemed to go over the same place had thrusters and stayed NASA chief climate sci- ing, “but frankly common
to show no warming for the at about the same time in the proper orbit, so they entist Gavin Schmidt and sense and looking at how
past 18 years. as they circle from north provided guidance for ad- Andrew Dessler, a climate Earth was responding over
The Remote Sensing Sys- to south pole. Some of the justments. scientist at Texas A&M, said the past 18 years kind of
tem temperature data, satellites drift a bit, which Mears said he was “moti- experts and studies had makes this finding a ‘duh’
promoted by many who changes their afternoon vated by fixing these dif- shown these problems that moment,” wrote University
reject mainstream climate- and evening measure- ferences between the Mears adjusted, and they of Georgia meteorology
science and most recently ments slightly. Some satel- satellites. If the differenc- both said those adjust- professor Marshall Shep-
by Republican presidential lites had drift that made es hadn’t been there, I ments make sense and are herd.
candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, Chip Knappenberger of the
now shows a slight warming Cato Institute, who doesn’t
since 1998. Ground tem- doubt that human-caused
perature measurements, climate change is happen-
which many scientists call ing but does not agree with
more accurate, all show mainstream scientists who
warming in the past 18 say the problem is enor-
years. mous, said this shows “how
“There are people that messy the procedures are
like to claim there was no in putting the satellite data
warming; they really can’t together.”
claim that anymore,” said The other major satellite
Carl Mears, the scientist temperature data set, run
who runs the Remote Sens- by University of Alabama
ing System temperature Hunstville professor John
data tracking. Christy, shows slight warm-
The change resulted from ing after 1998. But if 1998 is
an adjustment Mears included in the data, it sees
made to the fix a nagging no warming. But that should
discrepancy in the data change with a warm 2016,
from 15 satellites. Christy said.q
