European scientists report compelling evidence of the greenhouse effect
A team of British scientists have reported what they believe to be the first observational evidence of an increase in the Earth's greenhouse effect between 1970 and 1997. The researchers compared data collected by two different Earth-orbiting space craft in 1970 and 1997. 'These unique satellite spectrometer data collected 27 years apart show for the first time that real spectral difference have been observed and that they can be attributed to changes in greenhouse gases over a long time period,' says Professor John Harries, who led the team from the department of physics at London's Imperial College of science, technology and medicine. The team's findings, reported in the journal Nature, are based on examinations of the infrared spectrum of long-wave radiation data from a region over the Pacific Ocean, and also over the whole globe. It discovered differences between the two data sets for levels of atmospheric methane, carbon dioxide, ozone and chlorofluorocarbons 11 and12. Previous studies in this area have depended on theoretical simulations because of a lack of data.