WASHINGTON, April 28 (Xinhuanet) -- New oceanic and space data show that Earth is absorbing more heat than emitting, in a heat imbalance that supports projections of global warming, NASA-led researchers reported Thursday.

    Leading scientist James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, described the energy imbalance as a "smoking gun" on global warming in an online report by Science Express.

    The accumulation of energy is likely to raise the global temperatures by 0.6 degree Celsius this century, even if carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stopped increasing, said the researchers.

    If human-induced greenhouse emissions continue to grow, things could come "out of control." Researchers said greenhouse emissionshave increased at a rate corresponding to the energy imbalance.

    An increase of one watt per square meter over 10,000 years could melt ice equivalent to one km of ice cap. Researchers calculated that Earth is absorbing 0.85 watt of energy per square meter more of the sun's energy than it is emitting back to space as heat.

    In the study, researchers used more precise readings from 1,800 ocean buoys deployed worldwide from 2000, better satellite gauging of ocean levels, and computer models for climate change. Enditem