Scientists: Earth is heating up with ‘alarming’ increase

• NASA and NOAA scientists have stated that the Earth’s “energy imbalance” has roughly doubled from 2005 to 2019.
• They explained that the Earth is absorbing radiative energy that causes the planet to heat up.
• The researchers described the temperature increase as “alarming” and “unprecedented.”

New research from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) discovered that the earth is trapping almost twice as much heat as it did in 2005.

The researchers stated that the Earth’s “energy imbalance” roughly doubled from 2005 to 2019. This imbalance refers to how much the Earth absorbs “radiative energy” from the Sun compared to how much “thermal infrared radiation” is released back into space.

Scientists warn that the increase is “alarming” and “unprecedented” amid the climate crisis.

NASA stated, “A positive energy imbalance means the Earth system is gaining energy, causing the planet to heat up.”

The teams looked at data from satellite sensors, which track how much energy enters and exits the planet’s system, and ocean floats, which accurately estimate “the rate at which the world’s oceans are heating up”.

Since around 90% of excess energy from an imbalance winds up in the ocean, the data from the satellite sensors should correspond with the oceans’ temperature changes. The scientists found out that they are both in agreement.

Lead study author and NASA researcher Norman Loeb stated, “They’re both showing this very large trend, which gives us a lot of confidence that what we’re seeing is a real phenomenon and not just an instrumental artifact. The trends we found were quite alarming in a sense.”

According to the study, this uptick could be attributed to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, which traps heat and radiation in the Earth’s atmosphere that would have otherwise been released back into space. This warming then leads to a slew of other changes that further exacerbate this warming: ice and snow melt, leading to an increase in water vapor that then changes to clouds.

Researchers added that the “naturally occurring” shift in the Pacific ocean from a cool phase to a warm one could also have a significant contribution in the amplified energy imbalance.

Loeb explained that both “anthropogenic forcing and internal variability” could be “causing warming, which leads to a fairly large change in Earth’s energy imbalance.”

NASA clarified that “it’s not possible to predict with any certainty what the coming decades might look like for the balance of Earth’s energy budget”.

Still, the study showed that much greater climate shifts are expected unless the rate of heat absorption slows.

Source: The Guardian