August 29th 07, 02:19 AM
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First recorded activity by Weather-Banter: Jan 2006
Posts: 55
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As Predicted, Global Warming Fuels More Tropical Rainfall
On Tue, 28 Aug 2007 12:51:46 -0700, Roger Coppock
wrote:
As Predicted, Global Warming Fuels More Tropical Rainfall
By Andrea Thompson, LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 28 August 2007 11:37 am ET
Scientists had predicted that global warming ought to increase
rainfall in the tropics. Now NASA researchers say it has.
[Its a prediction Arrhenius made based on his climate model in 1896.
-- Roger ]
Scientists assembled a 27-year global record of rainfall from
satellite observations and ground-based instruments and found that the
rainiest years between 1979 and 2005 occurred primarily after 2001.
The wettest year in the record was 2005, followed by 2004, 2003, 2002
and 1998.
The patterns observed in the record showed that increases in rainfall
were concentrated over tropical oceans, while there was a slight
decrease over land.
"When we look at the whole planet over almost three decades, the total
amount of rain falling has changed very little," said study leader
Guojun Gu of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "But
in the tropics, where nearly two-thirds of all rain falls, there has
been an increase of 5 percent."
This increase in rainfall is expected in a warming world, because
warmer surface temperatures increase the evaporation of water from the
ocean and the land and warmer air can hold more moisture, which
eventually forms clouds and precipitation.
[ . . . ]
The rest, including a map, links, and a Video, are he
http://www.livescience.com/environme...l_changes.html
This is good, isn't it?
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