Climate change science doesn’t deny warming that varies.

Warming varies, doesn't contradict climate change science

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The claim: Differences in ocean and the atmospheric warming are not explained by climate change science

NASA, 90% of global warming is occurring in Earth’s oceans. However, the average rate of warming over the whole ocean is lower than that of the atmosphere.

One social media user claimed that this fact poses a challenge to the idea of global warming.

“Does global warming really exist? The oceans are an important heat sink. They are a heat sink and they determine the global temperature,” reads The March 31st Facebook post. “If scientists were all correct then rises in ocean temperature and all atmospheric datasets would all be the same – but they are not.”

The post was shared nearly 200 times and received hundreds of more responses in a matter of weeks. But it is incorrect.

Differences in rates of warming between oceans and the atmosphere are due to physics and were even predicted by climate scientist Svante Arrhenius in the late 1800s, according to researchers. While they warm at different rates, both the atmosphere and ocean are warming Human activity.

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USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the claim for comment.

Variations in ocean, atmospheric heating predicted by climate change science

Differences in warming between the ocean and atmosphere is to be expected in a global warming scenario, Kyle Armour, a climate scientist and associate professor at the University of Washington, told USA TODAY.

Surface ocean water and the surface atmosphere in contact with the ocean water are actually warming at similar rates, he said in an email.

“But the deep ocean is warming much more slowly than the surface ocean because it takes time for heat entering the ocean surface to mix downward and because the ocean’s immense heat capacity means that even a lot of heat absorption warms it very slowly,” Armour said.

Heat capacity refers to the amount of energy it requires to warm a substance to a given temperature. It takes more energy heat water than heat air. Josh Willis, a NASA climate scientist, told USA TODAY.

Fact check:Climate science and overall warming are not negated by short-term global temperature fluctuations.

He said that this is why the surface air temperatures on land are warmer than those in the ocean. Air above the land is more dry than air over the ocean so it takes less energy heat it up.

“There is no single temperature change that can be expected for the oceans or atmosphere. Armour said that different regions, depths and temperatures in the oceans heat at different rates. Likewise, different regions and heights of the atmosphere heat at differing rates. “Much of this was due to the fact that there were many variables. predicted as far back as 1896… and it has been observed ever since, now that we have global observation networks in place.”

Agreement among independent climate datasets

Although there is variation in surface temperatures across the globe, multiple independent climate agencies combine these data points to track temperature change over time.

These datasets may show some variation, but this is normal given the differences in data processing techniques and instrumentation. Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

“Each data set measures something a little different and has different uncertainties, so you don’t expect everything to line up perfectly. “However, all datasets showing basically similar patterns means that our understanding of the overall changes are robust,” he said to USA TODAY via email.

Fact check:In claim alleging a global cooling trend, misleading data was used

USA TODAY has previously debunked claims that climate change theory defies The laws of physics or overstates the role of CO2 in climate change.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that differences in ocean and atmospheric warming are not explained by climate change science. Climate scientists believe that Earth’s warming differences are due to physics, and the complexity Earth’s climate systems.