The World According To Measurements - 11

Fig. 1a

Fig. 1b

I. Good Reasons

Some good reasons to study the oceans are:

"The oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth's surface and contain 97 percent of the Earth's water.

Less than 1 percent of the Earth's water is fresh water, and 2-3 percent is contained in glaciers and ice caps.

The oceans contain 99 percent of the living space on the planet.

If the ocean's total salt content were dried, it would cover the continents to a depth of 5 feet."

(Oceanic Institute). Not to mention that if the ice sheets were to continue to melt, the sea level would rise and eventually incapacitate civilization as we know it (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

For one reason, that is because our current civilization of the 21st Century is like ancient Phoenicia in the sense of international trade being based on seaports used for shipping conducted on the oceans (The Extinction of Robust Sea Ports - 3).

Fig. 2a

Fig. 2b

II. Good Sources

Here at Dredd Blog we watch the oceans with data from reputable and well established institutions such as:  World Ocean Database (WOD), Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL), and the Thermodynamic Equation Of Seawater - 2010 (TEOS-10).

Fig. 2c

III. Good Measurements

All of the measurements taken by very hard working researchers in the fields of Oceanography and the various Climate Sciences must be used correctly in order to produce the most useful results.

Today's examples in support of that assertion are in the graphs at Fig. 1a - Fig. 1b compared with the graphs at Fig. 2a - Fig. 2c.

These show that measurements taken in the vast oceans (see section I) can be used for different purposes.

For example, the graph at Fig. 1b compared with Fig. 2b does not show the same pattern in terms of temperature.

That is as it should be, because Fig. 1b uses all temperature measurements but Fig. 2b does not.

The graph at Fig. 2b uses only "pairs" of measurements where the measurement equipment gathered both salinity and temperature measurements at the same time, depth, and location.

The pair condition is required by the very sophisticated TEOS-10 oceanographic toolkit for proper use of thermodynamic formulas.

The use of all temperature measurements includes those conditions where the salinity, for one reason or another, could not be taken along with the temperature.

IV. Good Trends

The more important uses of data are to establish trends because we can only change the future we are making for ourselves, which is not the case for the past, for our history.

Fig. 3 Sea Level Change History

It is what it is.

But if we want to avoid breaking the 2017 record for the highest climate catastrophe costs in the U.S.A., we will have to focus on trends that indicate what we can expect in coming years.

The year 2017 will not change for the better.

V. Good Future?

Will the remainder of the 21st Century have new records of climate catastrophe costs?

The truth is in the trend line.

It can be measured and used to tell us what to expect from the future we are making for ourselves.

We have been measured after all, because measuring the world is measuring ourselves.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.