Norman Loeb, NASA scientist and lead author of the study said, “This is more energy being consumed by the planet, so that will mean more temperature increases and more melting of sea ice and snow, which will lead to sea level rise – all things that society really cares about.” .
Life on Earth could not exist without solar energy, but it is important how much of this energy is radiated back into space. It is this delicate balance that determines the climate of the planet.
Aside from rising global temperatures, the most obvious effect of a positive imbalance, “We will see shifts in atmospheric cycles including more extreme events like droughts,” Loeb told CNN.
Using satellite data to measure the imbalance, scientists have found that the Earth is getting more energy than it should and causing the planet to be hotter, also known as positive energy imbalance.
Approximately 90 percent of the excess energy from this imbalance ends up in the oceans. And rising ocean temperatures raise pH, affecting fish and other marine biodiversity. When the researchers compared satellite measurements with data from various global ocean sensors, the results showed the same trend. Meanwhile, the remaining energy remains in the atmosphere.
The researchers report that the cause of this energy imbalance is certainly partly due to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. They are also affected by several positive feedback loops from climate change: as global temperatures increase, so does the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, which increases temperatures. The melting of ice masses and sea ice – natural reflectors of solar energy – is also decreasing due to global warming.
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“Man-made changes are changing the composition of the atmosphere, as well as fluctuations in the climate system,” Loeb said. “Those records are all mixed up.”
Loeb described the time period chosen by his team, from 2005 to 2019, only as a snapshot of what to expect in terms of climate impacts, adding that more studies and long-term observations are needed to fully understand long-term trends. .
“My hope is that the level we are seeing in this energy imbalance will decline over the next few decades,” Loeb said. Otherwise, we will witness more worrying climate change.
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