Heard Island global warming test
- Univ. of Washington, Seattle (USA)
In late January and early February 1991, an international team will conduct an experiment to test the possibility of measuring global warming in the world's oceans. The goal is to provide early indications of warming caused by the so-called greenhouse effect, the atmospheric buildup of CO{sub 2} and other gases. The method is based on the principle that acoustic energy travels through water between a source and receiver at a speed determined primarily by the water temperature. Thus acoustic travel time can be used as a temperature gauge. The idea is an outgrowth of suggestions made by Professor Walter Munk of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Professor Carl Wunsch of MIT in the early 1980s to use long-range underwater acoustic transmissions to measure changes in the heat content of the oceans.
- OSTI ID:
- 5285438
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Science and Technology; (United States), Vol. 25:2; ISSN 0013-936X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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