Dust, not climate warming, main cause of Atlantic temp increase

By William Atkins
Monday, 30 March 2009 18:12

Science - Climate

According to a U.S. study performed at the University of Wisconsin, about 70% of the recent warming trend in the Atlantic Ocean is from reduced numbers of dust storms and volcanic eruptions. Other factors, such as a warming of the global climate, contribute only about 30% to the upward trend.


The paper by Amato T. Evan (University of Wisconsin [UW], Madison), along with Daniel J. Vimont (UW), Andrew K. Heidinger (NOAA),  James P. Kossin (NOAA/NESDS/National Climatic Data Center), and Ralf Bennartz (UW), was published in the journal Science.

Appearing in the online issue on March 26, 2009, the title of the paper (DOI: 10.1126/science.1167404) is “The Role of Aerosols in the Evolution of Tropical North Atlantic Ocean Temperature Anomalies.”

Leading the research team is Dr. Evan, from the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies and the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, both at UW.

The research team states in the abstract to their paper, “Observations and models demonstrate that northern tropical Atlantic surface temperatures are sensitive to regional changes in stratospheric volcanic and tropospheric mineral aerosols.”

Aerosols are defined as the suspension of solid or liquid particles in a gaseous medium.

In Earth’s atmosphere (the gaseous medium, including nitrogen, oxygen, argon and other gases), such suspended (airborne) solid or liquid particles include dust, pollen and spores, sea spray, various industrial pollutants, and other such materials.

The authors added that before their study is was, “… unknown if the temporal variability of these aerosols is a key factor in the evolution of ocean temperature anomalies.”

Page two adds more detail to this research study.