DMCA
Earth’s Energy Imbalance: Confirmation and Implications (2005)
| Venue: | Science |
| Citations: | 150 - 4 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Hansen05earth’senergy,
author = {James Hansen and Larissa Nazarenko and Reto Ruedy and Makiko Sato and Josh Willis and Anthony Del Genio and Dorothy Koch and Andrew Lacis and Ken Lo and Surabi Menon and Gavin A. Schmidt and Nicholas Tausnev},
title = {Earth’s Energy Imbalance: Confirmation and Implications},
journal = {Science},
year = {2005},
pages = {1431}
}
Share
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
OpenURL
Abstract
Our climate model, driven mainly by increasing human-made greenhouse gases and aerosols, among other forcings, calculates that Earth is now absorbing 0.85 T 0.15 watts per square meter more energy from the Sun than it is emitting to space. This imbalance is confirmed by precise measurements of increasing ocean heat content over the past 10 years. Implications include (i) the expectation of additional global warming of about 0.6-C without further change of atmospheric composition; (ii) the confirmation of the climate system’s lag in responding to forcings, implying the need for anticipatory actions to avoid any specified level of climate change; and (iii) the likelihood of acceleration of ice sheet disintegration and sea level rise. Earth_s climate system has considerable thermal inertia. This point is of critical importance to policy- and decision-makers who seek to mitigate the effects of undesirable anthropogenicclimatechange.Theeffectoftheinertia is to delay Earth_s response to climate forcings,
Keyphrases
energy imbalance sea level rise earth_s climate system square meter human-made greenhouse gas anticipatory action climate change specified level atmospheric composition undesirable anthropogenicclimatechange ocean heat content precise measurement climate system lag earth_s response additional global warming considerable thermal inertia climate model critical importance ice sheet disintegration
