The space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said a study by its scientists ‘found a strong correlation between the frequency of these clouds and seasonal variations in the average sea surface temperature of the tropical oceans,’ reports AFP.
‘For every degree Centigrade increase in average ocean surface temperature, the team observed a 45-per cent increase in the frequency of the very high clouds,’ according to the study, recently published in Geophysical Research Letters.
‘At the present rate of global warming of 0.13 degrees Celsius (0.23 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade, the team inferred the frequency of these storms can be expected to increase by six per cent per decade.’
JPL Senior Research Scientist Hartmut Aumann headed the study on five years of data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua spacecraft, an instrument that observes climate variations.
The link between global warming and the frequency and intensity of severe storms has long been a source of speculation for climate modelers, noted the Pasadena, California-based JPL.