ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 12, 1997 TAG: 9703120069
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Scientists say Earth is definitely getting hotter. They also claim mankind is to blame for the increase.
Satellite temperature measurements suggest that next century will be a hot one, and bolster the conclusion that global warming is already underway, two Colorado scientists say.
Last year, an international scientific panel concluded that the planet is indeed getting hotter, and ``the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on climate.''
The latest findings reinforce that, and call attention to the urgency of the issue at a time when the world's nations are trying to control pollutants that heat up the atmosphere.
In Thursday's issue of the British journal Nature, climatologists Kevin Trenberth and James Hurrell argue that satellite temperature measurements show a slight warming trend in the upper atmosphere between 1979 and 1995.
Previous analyses of those satellite measurements suggested a cooling of about 0.09 degrees Fahrenheit per decade over that period.
If the two National Center for Atmospheric Research scientists are correct, they have resolved a troubling discrepancy: Ground-level records show a temperature increase of 0.13 degrees Celsius between 1979 and 1995, while satellite readings higher in the atmosphere show a cooling trend during the same period.
Trenberth and Hurrell contend those atmospheric measurements were erroneous because they failed to account for inconsistencies that occurred when old satellites wore out and were replaced by new ones. Over the 18-year span, eight satellites were used to measure temperature in the upper troposphere, an atmospheric layer about five miles above the ground.
LENGTH: Short : 41 linesby CNB