re: The Mystery of Global Warming's Missing Heat
From the site that you gave:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88520025
There was this comment:
"There has been a very slight cooling, but not anything really significant,"
Could the following information be of interest in the answer?
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooling
Evaporative cooling is a physical phenomenon in which evaporation of a liquid, typically into surrounding air, cools an object or a liquid in contact with it.
This process has recently been observed to operate on a planetary scale on Pluto and acts as an Anti-Greenhouse Effect.
From the site that you gave:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88520025
"In recent years, heat has actually been flowing out of the ocean and into the air.
Sounds like evaporative cooling to me.
"So with the oceans not warming, you would expect to see less sea level rise. Instead, sea level has risen about half an inch in the past four years. That's a lot.
The waters of the oceans contain a lot of air and gas bubbles, so if the pressure decreases on the surface of the water, then the bubbles can expand and the water will seem to cover more volume.
For an explanation of the effect see this site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesian_diver
Perhaps this effect is also linked to the problem explained on this web site:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87959035
From the site that you gave:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88520025
"Where is the extra heat all going?
Kevin Trenberth at the National Center for Atmospheric Research says it's probably going back out into space“
I think so too, although my reasoning for thinking so is different from that of Kevin Trenberth.