Recent energy balance of Earth

A recently published estimate of Earth’s global warming trend is 0.63 ± 0.28 W/m, as calculated from ocean heat content anomaly data spanning 1993–2008. This value is not representative of the recent (2003–2008) warming/cooling rate because of a “flattening” that occurred around 2001–2002. Using only 2003–2008 data from Argo floats, we find by four different algorithms that the recent trend ranges from –0.010 to –0.160 W/m with a typical error bar of ±0.2 W/m. These results fail to support the existence of a frequently-cited large positive computed radiative imbalance.