NASA Talk Explores How Global Warming May Be On Vacation

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Aug 04, 2014, 02:10 ET

HAMPTON, Va., Aug. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, Aug. 5 at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, atmospheric scientist Norman Loeb will present "The Recent Pause in Global Warming: A Temporary Blip or Something More Permanent?" at 2 p.m. in the Reid Conference Center.

Loeb's presentation will provide a summary on recent research related to a slow-down in surface warming referred to as the "Global Warming Hiatus." Over the last 15-years, the global mean surface temperature of Earth has increased at a rate that is roughly one-third of that over the past 60 years.

Loeb will be available to answer questions from the media during a news briefing at 1:15 p.m. that day. Media who wish to do so should contact Chris Rink at 757-864-6786, or by e-mail at [email protected], by noon on the day of the talk for credentials and entry to the center.

That same evening at 7:30, Loeb will present a similar program for the general public at the Virginia Air & Space Center in downtown Hampton. This Sigma Series event is free and no reservations are required.

The global warming hiatus occurred despite record-breaking temperatures in the 2000s, retreating Arctic sea ice, rising sea levels and a record high global concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Opinions vary about the hiatus, as some view it as evidence that man-made global warming is a myth. Others explain that it is simply due to climate variability that is temporarily masking a longer-term temperature trend.

An atmospheric scientist in the Science Directorate at NASA Langley, Loeb is the principal investigator of a satellite project called Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES). Observations from CERES are used to determine the Earth's radiation budget or measurements of the incoming energy from the sun and outgoing energy back to space that determines our planet's temperature and climate.

Loeb holds a doctorate in in atmospheric sciences from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

For more information about NASA Langley's Colloquium and Sigma Series Lectures, visit:
http://colloqsigma.larc.nasa.gov

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SOURCE NASA