Climate Etc.

By Nic Lewis

There have been further interesting developments in this story Continue reading →

By Nic Lewis

Introduction

The Resplandy et al. (2018) ocean heat uptake study (henceforth Resplandy18) is based on measured changes in the O₂/N₂ ratio of air sampled each year, compared to air stored in high pressure tanks originally sampled in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and in atmospheric CO₂ concentration. These are combined to produce an estimate (ΔAPO_Obs) of changes in atmospheric potential oxygen since 1991 (ΔAPO). They break this series down into four components, including one attributable to ocean warming (ΔAPO_Climate). By estimating the other three, they isolate the implied ΔAPO_Climate and use it to estimate the change in ocean heat content. In two recent articles, here and here, I set out why I thought the trend in ΔAPO_Climate – from which they derived their ocean heat uptake estimate – was overstated, and its uncertainty greatly understated. Continue reading →