The Temperature Of the Oceans Rises

[Davide DB]

First data of 2024. We're gonna need a bigger Y axis.

 

More than 90 percent of the heat absorbed by our planet ends up in the oceans. This is easily observed by the surface temperature of the oceans, shown in this figure. Shown here is the surface temperature of the oceans measured between latitudes 60 north and 60 south. We note that ocean temperature today is higher than 20 or 40 years ago (lighter lines on the graph). Its variation depends on seasonal phenomena but also on ocean mechanisms that last several years, such as the ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) oscillation, which, in the two extremes called El Niño and La Niña leads to warmer or colder ocean temperatures, respectively. But annual climate change is leading to more intense El Niño phenomena, as seen in the 2023 line, which is almost half a degree higher than "normal" temperatures (indicated by the gray region around the mean)!

 

 

 

Source:

https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/

 

Text:

https://chpdb.it/_climate_dash/index.php#sst_NS60

 

Some Italian scientists have created this Climate Change dashboard updated daily automatically and in Italian.
The data comment on themselves but it is easy to translate the rest with Google.

 

 

 

[bghazzal]

Similar concerns on ocean temperatures raised in this article, also pointing to links to extreme weather patterns - extract:

Astounding’ ocean temperatures in 2023 intensified extreme weather, data shows
 

The oceans absorb 90% of the heat trapped by the carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, making it the clearest indicator of global heating. Record levels of heat were taken up by the oceans in 2023, scientists said, and the data showed that for the past decade the oceans have been hotter every year than the year before.

 

The heat also led to record levels of stratification in the oceans, where warm water ponding on the surface reduces the mixing with deeper waters. This cuts the amount of oxygen in the oceans, threatening marine life, and also reduces the amount of carbon dioxide and heat the seas can take up in the future.
 

Reliable ocean temperature measurements stretch back to 1940 but it is likely the oceans are now at their hottest for 1,000 years and heating faster than at any time in the past 2,000 years.

The most common measure of the climate crisis – global average air temperature – was also driven up in 2023, by a huge margin. But air temperatures are more affected by natural climate variations, including the return last year of the warming El Niño phenomenon.
(...)

The new study, published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, used temperature data collected by a range of instruments across the oceans to determine the heat content of the top 2,000 metres, where most of the heating is absorbed, as well as sea surface temperatures.

In 2023, an additional 15 zettajoules of heat was taken up by the oceans, compared with 2022. By comparison, humanity uses about half a zettajoule of energy a year to fuel the entire global economy. In total, the oceans absorbed 287 zettajoules in 2023.
 

These figures are based on data from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. A separate dataset from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found a similar increase and identical trend over time.
 

The ocean surface temperatures in 2023 were “off the charts”, the researchers said. The primary cause was another year of record carbon emissions, assisted by El Niño. Over the whole year, the average temperature was 0.1C above 2022, but in the second half of 2023 the temperature was an “astounding” 0.3C higher.

The scientists said the record level of stratification and reduced oxygen in the ocean would have “severe consequences” for ocean plant and animal life. Marine heatwaves struck across the oceans in 2023.
 

A separate report, by the consortium Global Water Monitor (GWM), found some of the worst disasters of 2023 were due to unusually strong cyclones bringing extreme rainfall to Mozambique and Malawi, Myanmar, Greece, Libya, New Zealand and Australia.

Prof Albert Van Dijk of GWM said: “We saw cyclones behave in unexpected and deadly ways. The longest-lived cyclone ever recorded battered south-eastern Africa for weeks. Warmer sea temperatures fuelled those freak behaviours, and we can expect to see more of these extreme events going forward.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/11/ocean-warming-temperatures-2023-extreme-weather-data

Edited January 11 by bghazzal