Groundbreaking climate change discovery made by, sigh, Boaty McBoatface
Climate change is real, and many would argue the most serious existing threat to humanity. Today, British scientists announced a major new discovery about how climate change is affecting sea levels that will most likely cause climate scientists to reconfigure their projection models. This discovery was made due to the efforts of, ugh, Boaty McBoatface.
[...] Now, as part of the Attenborough's maiden voyage, Boaty McBoatface has made a major discovery, published in the journal PNAS, for which we must unfortunately give it credit. In short, the submersible traversed the waters of Antarctica measuring temperature, salinity, and current. What it found was that increasingly strong winds in the Antarctic are causing cold water at the bottom of the ocean to mix with warmer water from the middle levels. That, in turn, is causing overall ocean temperatures to rise, which contributes to rising sea levels. Previously unaware of this process, climate scientists will now need to adjust their sea-level forecasts.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 19 2019, @07:32AM (1 child)
Sheesh, someone's salty about losing the vote..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 19 2019, @03:18PM
Which one, the boat naming or the 2016 election?
Could be both.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday June 19 2019, @07:59AM (3 children)
How unfortunate about the name, but that's an awesome climate change discovery that ... uh ...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by lhsi on Wednesday June 19 2019, @09:32AM (2 children)
I wonder whether the story (including the climate findings) would be on as many news sites were it not for the name.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 19 2019, @03:43PM
Or if Hillary had been elected.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 19 2019, @04:38PM
Or if Hillary had been elected.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Captival on Wednesday June 19 2019, @08:53AM (1 child)
Yet another wonderful climate change discovery that wasn't part of our thousands of models but we've got it all explained and adjusted already. The solution is of course to buy Al Gore his 4th waterfront mansion and then have a nice big first class climate conference at a 5 star hotel in the tropics. It's a crisis after all.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday June 19 2019, @09:23AM
> increasingly strong winds in the Antarctic are causing cold water at the bottom of the ocean to mix with warmer water from the middle levels.
Thus cooling town that warmer water, exactly as you'd expect.
> That, in turn, is causing overall ocean temperatures to rise
Well, I never expected that. Damn, this is real groundbreaking science here. Looks like we're gonna need the conference to be on a 5-star cruise liner to enable us to, erm, measure the oceans.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Interesting) by deimtee on Wednesday June 19 2019, @10:27AM (1 child)
From TFA
Anyone have any idea how thinning the ozone layer makes the wind blow harder?
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 19 2019, @11:18PM
Just a guess: the thinner ozone layer means more of the sun's energy reaches the surface (i.e., the oceans) because less is absorbed in the ozone layer.
(Score: 3, Funny) by cyberthanasis on Wednesday June 19 2019, @12:15PM (2 children)
And yet, despite the models' error, they confidently dictate what will happen in 30 an 80 years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 19 2019, @06:31PM (1 child)
When they can accurately predict a week I'll believe them. I support the pro-climate loonies, but I'm more of a kill all humans and grow forest kind of guy. Then again nature will survive, we're the ones in danger.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday June 19 2019, @11:15PM
A week of what? Weather?
Weather is not the same as climate.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 19 2019, @02:43PM (2 children)
If they mix cold water with warm water that are both part of the same system how does the overall temperature rise? Is this just another misunderstanding of Holder's inequality, ie:
The more uniform the values you are averaging the higher the result. I don't see why that would apply here though... maybe they are taking a power somewhere in their "adjustments".
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday June 19 2019, @09:37PM
The problem is that the mixing is increasing, creating more instability in the system.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 19 2019, @11:15PM
Because if the temperature at the surface lowers, it will lose thermal energy a lower rate, because the rate of blackbody emission is proportional to the temperature at the surface raised to the fourth power. Similarly for conductive heat transfer to the air, the rate of which is proportional to the temperature difference at the interface.
Ocean heating from sunlight will not depend on the surface temperature, and this is likely the primary mechanism which heats the oceans (with conduction from warmer air being a negligible factor). So if the ocean is more thoroughly mixed, the surface temperature will lower (meaning the ocean sheds its thermal energy at a lower rate), but the rate of energy being added to the ocean stays the same. Therefore, the temperature of the ocean on average will rise, until it reaches thermal equilibrium (power in = power out).