Ocean study indicates ever-increasing extreme weather

New York Times : Global warming may be affecting the water cycle of the world’s oceans, according to new research published Friday in Science. Paul Durack of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and colleagues based their conclusion on changes in salinity at the ocean surface. Salinity is an indication of the amount of rainfall because the more it rains, the fresher the surface water; conversely, the less it rains, the saltier the surface water. From data collected between 1950 and 2000 by ships and robotic floats, the researchers determined that the water cycle has accelerated by about 4%, or twice the amount expected from computer modeling of the climate. If the rate continues to accelerate at that pace, we can expect more extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods. To continue monitoring the oceans in the 21st century, NASA has launched a new satellite, Aquarius, that can detect variations in salinity from space.