..as being too small to be of concern.
Global warming not hot air
August 13, 2005
Some scientists who question whether human-caused global warming poses a threat have long pointed to records showing the atmosphere's lowest layer, the troposphere, has not warmed over the past two decades, and has cooled in the tropics.
Now two independent studies have found errors in the complicated calculations used to generate the old temperature records, which involved stitching together data from thousands of weather balloons lofted around the world as well as a series of short-lived weather satellites.
A third study shows that when the errors are taken into account the troposphere has warmed.
The three papers have been published in the online edition of the journal Science.
The scientists who developed the original troposphere temperature records, John Christy and Roy Spencer of the University of Alabama, Huntsville, conceded they had made a mistake but said their revised calculations still produced a warming rate too small to be a concern.
However, other climate experts said the new studies were significant, in effect resolving a puzzle that had been used by opponents of curbs on greenhouse gas emissions.
Starting in about 2001, the data and methods of Dr Christy and Dr Spencer were re-examined by Carl Mears and Frank Wentz, scientists at Remote Sensing Systems, a company that analyses satellite data for NASA. They and others have since found more significant warming trends.
Their new paper identifies a fresh error in the original calculations that, more firmly than ever, shows warming in the troposphere, particularly in the tropics.
The New York Times
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