Thursday, July 8, 2010

Internal Waves for Ocean Heat Transport Hypothesis





I am not convinced that we know anything from this particular item.  To start with, the necessary measurements are few enough to be largely early days for this science. A simple shifting back and forth along a channel of movement will provide vast ranges of variation and that as yet can not be discounted without a massive investment in data collection that we are nowhere near having.

 

I have already argued for a millennial long cycle in the impact of the North Atlantic on global climate.  The implied variation supports a modest increase in heat flow brought about by a modest change in flow rate of the currents.  The gulf Stream is a perfectly good suspect but that does not exclude other deeper flows we barely know exist.  Again, during the Bronze Age, the North Atlantic was an amazing two degrees warmer for a long time.

 

In short, this paper is at best a guess.  The trouble with all this, besides the lack of data is the lack of perspective drawn from centuries of such observations.  I sometimes wish science would hold off on speculation where the data is scant or at least say as much.  Even my interpretation of a millennial cycle is based on some good evidence and a best interpretation of truly ancient sources that supports the proposition past three data points.  I went looking and found support when I asked the question suggested by the key data points.

 

Internal heat waves are a nice idea.  So are quarks.  The messy part comes in demonstration.  We already know that we have a discernable forty year cycle related to hurricanes and climate change generally.  So we can not go too far wrong there.   Transporting that heat cycle through a subsea mechanism that is not a slow moving current is helpful.  Having such a device ex machina makes simulation almost work.

 

So prove it exists!

 

 

Internal waves transport oceanic heat within 40 years

Jun 29, 2010
The researchers reported their work in Sciencexpress.

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