T esting the relationship between ocean temperature and density meant compensating for sea level fluctuations caused by forces other than heating, such as atmospheric pressure, salinity, and barotropic forcing. From sea level data for November 1992 to April 1996, the researchers derived annual heat storage rates, computed inter-annual changes and averaged data over the Pacific and Atlantic basins. The annual signal of the variability in the North Pacific and the North Atlantic over the basin agrees well with the mean temperature measurements, and the spatial signal of the heat storage rates is very similar to the spatial signal of the sea surface temperature changes. The result was reassuring, he said, because it indicated that heat changes are the dominant influence in the sea level measurements. H eat flux determinations from the team's work show the North Atlantic basin to be warming faster than any of those compared, while the northern Pacific seems to be cooling.
Chambers plans to further compare the altimeter heat signals with temperature data.
But the key, he says, is global coverage. Chambers, D.P, B. D. Tapley and R. H. Stewart. Journal of Geophysical Research .