Atmospheric Dry Spell Eases Global Warming

[NickB79]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123075836

"A new study helps explain why the planet didn't warm up dramatically over the course of the past decade, even though the gases that cause global warming increased dramatically.

Scientists have identified a surprising phenomenon 10 miles above our heads that explains part of this unexpected pause in warming.

"People very reasonably have asked me why is it that in the last decade, it just doesn't look it got that much warmer, when CO2 has continued to increase, and in fact has increased quite fast," says Susan Solomon at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colo. So she set out to find an answer."

snip

"It turns out that starting in the year 2000, a narrow layer of the stratosphere dried out quite rapidly. And water in the atmosphere traps heat, like glass in a greenhouse. So less stratospheric water means less warming."


The article calls this a short-term trend. When the stratosphere gets another infusion of water vapor in the next decade, watch out.

[Teaser]

1. let's hope this is a feedback effect we didn't expect

it'd be nice if there was a feedback loop that dries out the atmosphere in response to too rapid warming.

yeah, it'd be nice...

[theophilus]

2. Is that where the "chemtrails" were located? hmmmmmm. n/t

[OnlinePoker]

3. Water vapour...the other greenhouse gas.

I better stop taking steamy showers.