Higher Temperatures Can Worsen Climate Change

Higher temperatures on the earth’s surface at higher latitudes cause an increase in the emission of methane, a greenhouse gas that plays an important role in global warming. Therefore, higher temperatures are not just a consequence of climate change but can also worsen cause of it, conclude climate researchers in an article published in Science.

During their research, the researchers made use of the methane concentrations determined by SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research on the basis of measurements from the Dutch-German space instrument SCIAMACHY (on board ESA’s environmental satellite Envisat).

The team of researchers — from SRON and the University of Edinburgh — investigated the methane emissions from the world’s largest methane sources: paddy fields, marshes and bogs. These wetlands can be found in both the tropics and at higher altitudes and exhibit strong variations in their emissions.

The researchers discovered that fluctuations in the methane emissions in the tropics are mainly determined by variations in the groundwater level but that fluctuations in the methane emissions at high latitudes are mainly due to variations in the surface temperature. The team drew these conclusions based on satellite data about the earth’s atmosphere (SCIAMACHY) and surface temperature for the period 2003-2007, and satellite measurements of variations in the gravitational field (GRACE) that were used to calculate variations in groundwater levels. An analysis of the data revealed that the total emission of the boggy areas increased by 7 percent during this period.

Science Daily