New probe may silence climate sceptics

Global Warming is accepted by the vast majority of scientists, but there are a few who raise some valid points about the integrity of the satellite data cited by the IPCC as evidence of higher rates of temperature change since the beginning of the industrial revolution. A new satellite probe which can be calibrated while in space may put an end to any debate on the matter.

THOSE who deny global warming is happening often rely on somewhat error-prone satellite information about our planet. But a proposed probe could dramatically improve the accuracy of such readings and put an end to the climate change debate – at least as far as satellite evidence is concerned.

Climate change sceptics have often cited a 1992 analysis by John Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, which showed that the troposphere had warmed only negligibly since satellite records began in 1979. But many have argued that Christy’s analysis ignored, among other things, uncertainties in the satellite data. “The uncertainty allows the sceptics to exist,” says Nigel Fox of the UK’s National Physical Laboratory near London. “As long as they can point to uncertain results, we won’t be able to argue convincingly for climate change treaties,” he says.

Some of the uncertainty stems from the calibration of the so-called hyperspectral sensors that are mounted on satellites, says Fox. These sensors monitor radiation from the sun and the Earth over a broad range of frequencies. They can directly or indirectly measure many parameters, including the average temperature of our planet, the amount of aerosols in the troposphere, and the health and life cycle…

Posted by PerceptualChaos
PerceptualChaos is a physics (photonics) student from the University of Auckland, Aotearoa (NZ). He is working towards eventually getting a PHD and doing R&D on renewable energy sources and technology as we approach the end of the fossil fuel era Learn...

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