Time to get out a hanky for your climate-denying relative—
researchers have found and published results confirming the existence of the "tropospheric hotspot," a warming in the upper troposphere predicted by many climate change scientists' models.
The inability to detect this hotspot previously has been used by those who doubt man-made global warming to suggest climate change is not occurring as a result of increasing carbon dioxide emissions.
"Using more recent data and better analysis methods we have been able to re-examine the global weather balloon network, known as radiosondes, and have found clear indications of warming in the upper troposphere," said lead author ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science Chief Investigator Prof Steve Sherwood.
The sound you hear is Senator Jim Inhofe digging into his freezer for some more of his
science snowballs.
But what do the results really mean?
The results show that even though there has been a slowdown in the warming of the global average temperatures on the surface of the Earth, the warming has continued strongly throughout the troposphere except for a very thin layer at around 14-15km above the surface of the Earth where it has warmed slightly less.
As well as confirming the tropospheric hotspot, the researchers also found a 10% increase in winds over the Southern Ocean. The character of this increase suggests it may be the result of ozone depletion.
Unfortunately, the only good news in all of this is there is yet another proof to toss in the face of ignorance.