Which specific areas of science need to be studied further, to advance our understanding of climate change?

Question

What are some areas of uncertainty in scientific knowledge concerning climate change?

Answer 1

As with any field, our understanding of anything is only limited to our current knowledge, which although increases with the natural flow of time, can and does hinder our scientific knowledge.

However, one can put forward the hypothesis that climate change, whether man-made or natural could be further understood if we simply worked out the conumdrum, that is to why Pop Tarts are so d**n good......

Answer 2

Everything is uncertain until proved by science, right?

We hardly know anything about why climate changes, sometimes so abruptly. We have many theories but few have been proved.

We're still trying to understand what and why climate caused the dinosaurs to all disappear. We have theories but have not found sufficient conclusive scientific facts to settle the argument.

Science is fluid. It's in a constant change. No sooner do we "think" we have solved or understood something when here comes a fact "over looked" or "discovered" which casts doubt on the original situation.

Answer 3

One significant uncertainty is the accuracy of the satellite tropospheric temperature measurements.

The primary criticism skeptics have of the AGW theory is that the troposphere should be warming faster than the surface, but satellite measurements haven't shown this.  However, the measurements have various biases which need to be taken to account.  For example, they have poor vertical resolution, so the cooling stratosphere can infringe on the tropospheric measurements.  The satellites also have orbital decays which need to be taken into account.

The Christy Singer Douglass et al paper claimed that because the troposphere appears not to be warming as much as the AGW theory suggests, the theory may be flawed.  However, they neglected the large uncertainty in the satellite measurements, as I discuss in the link below.

Answer 4

what needs to be studied?

- what can be done to replace the energy source that we use coal and oil for.

- what to do about the excess CO2 in the atmosphere.

those are the areas that are of concern today.

ie,  how to fix the problem.