Ocean heat content (Earth 🌍)
Ocean heat content or ocean heat uptake is the energy absorbed and stored by oceans. It is an important indicator of global warming. Ocean heat content is calculated by measuring ocean temperature at many different locations and depths, and integrating the areal density of a change in enthalpic energy over an ocean basin or entire o...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_heat_content
#OceanHeatContent #Earth #Climatology #Oceanography #ClimateChange #EarthSciences
As many governments seem to be going backwards on emissions ocean heat keeps building up. “either move or die.” #Climate #OceanHeatContent
#Ocean surface temperatures around #Aotearoa #NewZealand - it's getting hot. This shows departure from normal for the time of year. The central Tasman is particularly so - and this drives some of our weather systems.
(keep in mind this is just the very surface of the ocean - we have less data, but some, on what's going on deeper down)
Ocean heat content (Earth 🌍)
Ocean heat content or ocean heat uptake is the energy absorbed and stored by oceans. To calculate the ocean heat content, it is necessary to measure ocean temperature at many different locations and depths. Integrating the areal density of a change in enthalpic energy over an ocean basin or entire ocean gives the total ocean heat up...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_heat_content
#OceanHeatContent #Earth #Climatology #Oceanography #ClimateChange #EarthSciences
serious ocean warming study from colleagues down the corridor,
a fancy journal like Geophysical Research Letters doesn't publish stuff that happens in a sleepy South Pacific ocean backwater unless its a big deal.
_5_ times global average. 😲
"The warming has placed this biologically-significant region in almost perpetual #MarineHeatWave conditions."
Yet the prognosis for the future of this type of science in NZ is very not good.
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL109174
@AlexsandraSmart @Brendanjones @drclareharris
@AlexsandraSmart @Brendanjones @drclareharris
Yes its the biggest existential question for our civilization at the moment. Sea surface temperatures are easy for everyone to understand but the real story is Ocean Heat Content - the Joules of energy stored in the ocean. Typically the total over 700m or 2000m is what is tracked.
The figure is from => https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-ocean-heat #ClimateEmergency #OceanHeatContent
From the goddess of #OceanHeatContent #OHC comes the annual update for 2023. 🏆 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00376-024-3378-5
In previous updates, the team always surprised (me) with great visualisations #scicomm , this year is no exception, although my favorite 3-dimensional "wheel" diagram of the 4 ocean basins is replaced by multiple line charts of more basins surrounding a global map. And also, each basin got its individual, 10-line short analysis. But I miss the wheeldiagram anyway.
2023's OHC down to 2000m depth was colder than 2022 in many basins. Yup, you read that right: colder than 2022.
It opens the question how that could occur while all of us where watching #ClimateReanalyzer daily #SST shocking updates , particularly in the North #Atlantic.
Why didn't high surface temperatures propagate properly into the lower layers?
Maybe #LiJingCheng is a man and hence The God of OHC. But until proven otherwise, I'll use the female form to sneak in attention to the gender disparity in #climatescience
The global physical and biogeochemical environment has been substantially altered in response to increased atmospheric greenhouse gases from human activities. In 2023, the sea surface temperature (SST) and upper 2000 m ocean heat content (OHC) reached record highs. The 0–2000 m OHC in 2023 exceeded that of 2022 by 15 ± 10 ZJ (1 Zetta Joules = 1021 Joules) (updated IAP/CAS data); 9 ± 5 ZJ (NCEI/NOAA data). The Tropical Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and southern oceans recorded their highest OHC observed since the 1950s. Associated with the onset of a strong El Niño, the global SST reached its record high in 2023 with an annual mean of ∼0.23°C higher than 2022 and an astounding > 0.3°C above 2022 values for the second half of 2023. The density stratification and spatial temperature inhomogeneity indexes reached their highest values in 2023.
In which I take a different angle on the old chestnut "we know more about the surface of Mars than we do about the oceans". In this case #Venus.
It seems like a plea for more money but actually its a plea to not reduce the modest efforts to monitor the Planet's flywheel. If we don't tell this story we are sleepwalking into a shit-show.
#OceanHeatContent #climate #SouthernOcean #Antarctica #oceanography