Tuesday, May 2, 2006 · Last updated 12:13 p.m. PT
Global warming differences resolved
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP SCIENCE WRITER
WASHINGTON -- A nagging difference in temperature readings that had raised questions about global warming has been resolved, a panel of scientists reported Tuesday.
"This significant discrepancy no longer exists because errors in the satellite and radiosonde data have been identified and corrected," researchers said in the first of 21 assessment reports planned by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program.
The findings show clear evidence of human influences on climate due to changes in greenhouse gases, aerosols and stratospheric ozone.
There has been increasing concern about global climate change being caused by human activity, in particular the release of gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by automobiles and industrial activity.
But while temperature readings at the surface showed this increase, readings in the atmosphere taken by satellites and radiosondes - instruments carried by weather balloons - had shown little or no warming.
There are still some questions about the rate of atmospheric warming in the tropics, but overall the issue has been settled, said Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center.
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