NASA Launches Satellite To Monitor Oceans

On Friday, NASA launched the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 satellite into orbit to begin a detailed study of ocean currents, sea-surface height, and surface topology. Scientists hope to use the data gathered by Jason 2 in order to better understand weather patterns and global warming. Further details about the mission objectives (PDF) are also available. Quoting NASA's press release: "Combining ocean current and heat storage data is key to understanding global climate variations. OSTM/Jason 2's expected lifetime of at least three years will extend into the next decade the continuous record of these data started in 1992 by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, or CNES, with the TOPEX/Poseidon mission. The data collection was continued by the two agencies on Jason 1 in 2001. Compared with Jason 1 measurements, OSTM/Jason 2 will have substantially increased accuracy and provide data to within 25 kilometers (15 miles) of coastlines, nearly 50 percent closer to shore than in the past."

Comments

There is warming, and there is "warming".

[Jane Q. Public]

I do not disagree that the globe is warming. That would be denying facts... the earth has been trending warmer for over 6,000 years!

But when most people say "global warming", what they really mean is MAN-CAUSED global warming. Even more specifically, it usually means that they have bought into the whole CO2-based warming model.

The problem here being that if the man-caused global warming theories were to be believed, we would NOT have had a record cold northern hemisphere this year. Even with all the other complications, it would have continued to get warmer on that scale.

The man-caused warming theories do predict localized variations, but something on the order of an entire hemisphere contradicts some of their basic premises!

Further, the CO2-based warming theory REQUIRES the upper atmosphere to be warming at a rate proportional to the low-altitude temperature... and it simply has not been. Actual satellite and weather balloon temperature data do not support the CO2 warming theory at all.

There are other problems with the man-caused warming theories, but this is hardly the place to be discussing them all. My point is simply that yes, the earth has been warming. Yes, this year is an anomaly in the trend. BUT... it also constitutes a counterexample that refutes the man-caused warming models.

Re:There is warming, and there is "warming".

[TapeCutter]

Beside hopelessly confusing weather and climate, you have also been mislead about the UN. The IPCC reports are here, you can talk directly to some of the scientists who contributed to the report here. An attribution graph showing the contributions of man to both warming (GHG) and cooling (mainly sulphates) can be found in the IPCC's 2007 SPM or you could have a look at this one.

Now please realise that the IPCC does not come up with new science, it is a UN body that gathers scientists from every national science body on the planet and reviews published scientific papers. They do not have ONE report they have ~20yrs worth of reports.

Assuming you are not just a rabid anti-science troll can you please post some evidence for your claims such as...

ALL greenhouse gas "global warming" theories require the upper atmosphere to warm proportionally to the surface temperature....the greenhouse warming models allow for local, temporary variations, but NOT for a record cold hemisphere...the UN has retracted their famous, hysterical report about greenhouse warming...Some of the very scientists who were quoted in that IPCC report tried to get their names removed

Note: I work on the same basis as the IPCC, ie: I only accept evidence that is backed by peer-reviewed publications.