A more detailed investigation of the satellite observations and climate models during last 15 years helped the researchers finally reconcile what was happening globally versus locally. Scientists have long known that as Earth warms, it is able to restore its temperature equilibrium through a phenomenon known as the Planck Response.
The phenomenon is an overall increase in infrared energy that Earth emits as it warms. New study found, however, that Planck Response tends to be overwhelmed locally by heat-trapping changes in clouds, water vapor, and snow and ice, and the climate system might be able to create large, sustained changes in temperature all by itself. Read more at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
