Key claims against global warming melt away

Three new research papers debunk earlier research that showed the planet was not warming up. In 1990, study of data collected by the University of Alabama satellite found that the atmosphere's low-level troposphere was not warming in line with computer modelling predictions.

The study been used ever since by global warming sceptics.

But now a correct reading of the data has revealed unequivocally that the planet's atmospheric and surface temperatures are on the rise.

The Californian firm that did the new reading, Remote Sensing Systems, has found the University of Alabama satellite was collecting faulty data.

Dr David Jones, from the Bureau of Meteorology's National Climate Centre, says one satellite used to collect the data was not properly calibrated.

"You put a new satellite up hopefully before the old one dies and you go through a very careful match of one satellite to the subsequent one," he said.

"Every time you do that you need to compare instruments, you have to compare what time the satellite goes overhead and so on and it's a very complex task.

"As it turns out one particular satellite, know as Noah 11, a number of years back was spliced slightly incorrectly. There was mistake made in the correction for the time it actually travelled overhead and that's just recently come to light.

"The correction's been made and now we find the satellite data shows a much more rapid warming and a warming which is very consistent with what we see at the surface."

Miscalculations
Two other studies, which are also published in the journal Science, have also revealed global warming miscalculations.

Yale University, in Connecticut in the United States, has found that the sensors on older weather balloons were either faulty or positioned incorrectly.

The researchers say the sensors read too warm in daylight, so the results could not be trusted.

California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has also smoothed out discrepancies between 19 different climate models and measurements.

Researchers there have ruled that the differences are due to human errors in calculations.

Dr Jones says these developments are a critical example of theory winning over data.

"It's wrong to isolate just one individual piece of data and say, 'Hey this is inconsistent' because we know all data is fallible, all data has problems, no data's perfect," he said.

"So the broad picture for many years has been of a globe warming and a globe warming quite rapidly.

"But now really the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle has fallen into place and I guess there's really little doubt about the realism of global warming."

Dr Jones say the focus of the global warming debate should now be on the warming's cause - whether it be man-made or a combination of human and natural causes.

Peat land thaw
These developments come as Siberia reports that its vast frozen peat land is undergoing its first thaw since the end of the Ice Age 11,000 years ago.

This will release billions of tonnes of greenhouse-polluting carbon dioxide and methane gas into the atmosphere, which will then speed up the global warming phenomenon.

A peat land expert at the Australian National University, Professor Geoff Hope, says the thaw is in line with a one or two degree increase in average temperatures.

He says the thaw will unlock massive amounts of greenhouse polluting gases into the atmosphere, which will then speed up the global warming phenomenon.

"Once the peat lands are able warm up, when the frost melts from below it, then it starts to rot away," he said.

"Basically you get the charming smell you often get when you disturb a swap. It is partly made up of methane, most of it is carbon dioxide and the whole volume of the peat land shrinks away.

"It becomes more like a sort of potting mix and less like a lot fibrous material and we release a whole pile of methane and CO2 into the air, millions and millions of tonnes of it."

Source: www.abc.net.au