Planetary Demise

[popeyespappy]

The most accurate measures of temperature come from satellites.

Well that’s debatable. For one thing satellites don’t provide direct measurement of temperature. They measure radiance of several frequencies of light. Temperatures are then calculated using some algorithm. On the plus side satellites can look at much broader areas. On the minus side not everyone’s calculations are the same as can be seen on the graph below.

In any case the satellite record does not differ significantly from the direct surface temperature measurements.

Another problem with the satellite record is it does not account for sub surface ocean temperatures very well. While our direct measurements of subsurface ocean temperatures are far from complete they are getting better and deeper. What that part of the record shows is that the oceans are storing large amounts of the heating caused by the accumulation of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.



This alone accounts for most of the variance we have seen in the predicted rates of global warming over the last couple of decades. Surfaces temperatures aren’t as high as predicted and sea levels are higher than predicted because the heat is being stored in the ocean rather than the atmosphere.