Major Correction to Satellite Data Shows 140% Faster Warming Since 1998

A new paper published in the Journal of Climate reveals that the lower part of the Earth’s atmosphere has warmed much faster since 1979 than scientists relying on satellite data had previously thought.

Researchers from Remote Sensing Systems (RSS), based in California, have released a substantially revised version of their lower tropospheric temperature record.

After correcting for problems caused by the decaying orbit of satellites, as well as other factors, they have produced a new record showing 36% faster warming since 1979 and nearly 140% faster (i.e. 2.4 times faster) warming since 1998.  This is in comparison to the previous version 3 of the lower tropospheric temperature (TLT) data published in 2009.

Climate sceptics have long claimed that satellite data shows global warming to be less pronounced that observational data collected on the Earth’s surface.  This new correction to the RSS data substantially undermines that argument.  The new data actually show more warming than has been observed on the surface, though still slightly less than projected in most climate models. 

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