Study corrects IPCC: Sea levels rising faster as oceans warm 50% quicker

William Atkins
Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:34

Science - Climate

According to an Australian/U.S. climate study, the world’s oceans warmed fifty percent faster than previously thought over the past forty years. The conclusions of the researchers corrected results of a 2007 IPCC study done by the United Nations.

Catia Domingues (Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research (CAWCR)) led the team of researchers.

The other members of the team include Peter Geckler, John Church, Neil White, Susan Wijffels, Paul Barker, and Jeff Dunn.

They are from the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem (ACE) at the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), California, U.S.A.

The team of Australian and U.S. climate researchers showed that the Earth’s oceans warmed, and the sea level (on average) increased, at a rate 50% faster over the past forty years (from 1961 to 2003) when compared to the rate previously stated in the United Nations’ 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report (IPCC).

As the temperature of the world’s ocean get warmer, the increased heat (thermally) expands the volume of the water. Such action increases the height of sea levels around the world.

Other factors—primarily the melting of ice in the Antarctic and Arctic regions of the Earth—also adds to the rise of sea levels throughout the world.

Domingues, also a scientist with CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship, stated, “For the first time, we can provide a reasonable account of the processes causing the rate of global sea-level rise over the past four decades – a puzzle that has led to a lot of scientific discussion since the 2001 IPCC report but with no significant advances until now.”. [CSIRO: “Ocean warming on the rise”]

He went on to say, “Following the review of millions of ocean measurements, predominantly from expendable instruments probing the upper 700 metres of the ocean, we were able to more accurately estimate upper-ocean warming, and the related thermal expansion and sea-level rise.” [CSIRO]
And, “We show that the rate of ocean warming from 1961 to 2003 is about 50 per cent larger than previously reported.” [CSIRO]

The important study was published in the journal Nature. It was performed in response to discrepancies within the large report issued in 2007 by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Why was the IPCC report in error. Please read on.