What part of the Earth is getting Colder?

Question

If Glaciers are melting, and disappearing, and North Pole Sea ice has melted, what part of the earth is getting colder? The average temperture of the earth has only risen a minisule amount (couple degrees) in the last 100 years? How can the ice melt, but the average overall temperature stay relatively the same?

Answer 1

Seems a simple enough question but it's not really all that easy to answer - it depends what you take as either the starting point or what you use as the base period.

In recent years the only land on the planet that has cooled is a section of Antactica inland and to the east of the Weddel Sea. There has been slight cooling in some parts of the oceans, most notably in the mid southern latitudes (the latitudes known as the roaring forties). Some parts of the Pacific have cooled slightly. There's a large scale image showing just where cooling has occurred - http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003300/a003375/tempanom_still.0975.tif it's a TIFF file and 3 megs so may take a little while to open, here's the same image as a much smaller PNG file http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003300/a003375/tempanom_still.0975_web.png

Here's a video animation showing global temperature anomalies each year since 1880 http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003300/a003375/temp_anom_w_date_NTSC.m2v it uses the period of 1961 to 1990 as the mean. It's an MPEG file and about 10 megs to download.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ice doesn't melt until the ambient temperature reaches 0°C, as the planet warms up some of the heat energy in the atmosphere and oceans is used to melt the surrounding ice. There is more excess heat being generated than is being used to melt the ice.

Think of the planet as a room and the ice caps as a fridge. There's heating on in the room and it's slowly warming the room up (global warming), you open the fridge door and some of the warm air enters the fridge and begins to melt the ice. After a while all the ice has melted but because the whole room is heating and more heat is being generated than is needed to melt the ice the overall effect is that the room warms up.

Answer 2

This is a difficult question to answer Mr. Angelo, because the term colder is a relative term. Colder would be in reference to a particular time. It is my opinion that the peak of the natural warming cycle that humanity has enjoyed occurred around 2003.

The two links provided below represent any temperature anomalies that currently exists in the worlds oceans this August and the August for the year 2003 (4 Years Ago).


August 27 2007

http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/data/anomnight.8.27.2007.gif

August 25 2003

http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/data/anomnight.8.25.2003.gif

If you have the means to display both of these links side by side, you will see that overall, all of the Oceans of the world are cooler, except for the Artic. You will notice that Antarctica has no real loss of ice, but the North Pole has considerable loss of ice, and more than likely is the reason why we are having such incessant rain's this year. But overall most oceans have cooled.

You will notice that Trevors movie does not quite make it this far. Time will tell if the Artic will follow this pattern, meanwhile we will bicker.

Answer 3

Don't forget the difference between heat and temperature.

If you have a glass of ice water, it will stay at 0 C (32 F) constantly while the ice is melting. Only when the ice is gone will the temperature actually go up.

Global warming mostly means that the heat content of the Earth's biosphere is increasing. The greenhouse gasses let in energy from the Sun, then trap it, increasing the energy of the system.

Answer 4

the stratosphere--an upper region of the atmosphere that extends from about ten to fifty kilometers (six to thirty miles)

Oh wait, this is why the terms "Global Heating" or "Global Climate Change" are better than "Global Warming". A glass of ice can melt without getting any warmer. The ice absorbs the "heat of fusion" and stays at 32F (0C) until the last bit of ice is melted. Earth is not quite so simple, but the cold oceans and the ice keep it from actually warming as much. The heat goes in, but the non-linear specific heat of the material (water) keeps it from warming proportionally.

And temperature is not really the same. The arctic *IS* warming up!
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/arctic-climate-impact-assessment.html

Answer 5

Well, it's not really important, but central Antarctica has gotten a bit cooler. Scientists think it may be due to the ozone hole.

But the important thing is that the one degree or so of warming that has happened, has severely damaged the Arctic ice cap and the Antarctic Peninsula. They melt a bit during Summer anyway, and then freeze in Winter. They now melt more and freeze less. It adds up. The Arctic may see it's first ice free summer in many thousands of years in 20 years or so.

If it gets to 2-3 degrees of warming, Man is in big trouble. Not the Earth of course, but Man and many other species equally sensitive to climate. Details about the trouble we'll be in here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL052735320070407
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM6avr07.pdf

We need to hold the temperature increase down. Here's the plan:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,481085,00.html
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM040507.pdf

But you bring up a key point. A seemingly small temperature increase can cause a lot of damage.

Answer 6

This whole 'global warming' thing is very confusing to everyone, isn't it. Yes, the earth is 'getting warmer' and that is why the glaciers are melting ... and that water goes into the ocean, and more 'fresh water' means less parts 'salt' ... salt water doesn't freeze, but fresher water does ... so when the 'sea' becomes less salty, it gets 'cooler' and that can cause the 'huge storms' that can bring on a new ice age. So it is that 'global warming' is not us 'dying of the heat' but the possibility that we could 'die because of the freezing temperatures' that will come if we can't 'turn the weather around' ...

Answer 7

The entire Southern Hemisphere at the moment...

Most of the temperature stations that are reporting man-made global warming are land-based, and since the Northern hemisphere has more land on it than the Southern, it's no surprise that this is so.

If you take the time to read the IPCC's latest report you will find this:
"It is likely that there has been significant anthropogenic warming over the past 50 years averaged over each continent except Antarctica (see Figure SPM.4). The observed patterns of warming, including greater warming over land than over the ocean, and their changes over time, are only simulated by models that include anthropogenic forcing."

The models only seem to correlate with a man-made source of warming if they toss out the oceans and Antarctica. You will also see that the continents with most of their land in the southern half are about 0.5 C lower than northern continents. Some scientists claim that if we went to satellites to measure surface temperatures, that it would show considerably lower temps than the "old school" land based stations, many of which are located near metropolitan areas, falsely heated by the massive concrete and asphalt of the city.

Answer 8

The average temperature is from the entire Earth, the hole in the ozone is what is causing global warming and it is only so big. Therefore it only heats the area for which it is over top of. When the sun hits the polar ice caps, it is like having a bonfire on that spot, but it doesn't mean the temp. of the entire Earth has to change, although I'm sure you have noticed that the winters are alot warmer than what they used to be. This part is for Kris L., yes, salt water does freeze, just because they put salt on the roads when it snows does not mean that it doesn't freeze, salt actually makes it freeze quicker, maybe you should have paid more attention in science class.

Answer 9

the warm areas e.g. middle east and africa are now getting more rain, and stronger winters, it has happened before thousands of years ago that europe was once just like africa whereas africa was really cold, it switches between time and this is what i think is starting to happen to the world!