What we're talking about here is basically the amount of unrealized warming, whereas the radiative forcing tells you the total net energy imbalance since your choice of start date (the IPCC uses 1750). (judithcurry.com)
«An important result of this paper is the demonstration that the oceans have continued to warm over the past decade, at a rate consistent with estimates of Earth's net energy imbalance,» Rintoul said. (scientificamerican.com)
Trenberth replied promptly (the guy is a class act), informing me that von Schuckmann's energy imbalance of 0.77 W / m2 was for the ocean only and when you average it out over the whole globe, it gives a net energy imbalance of 0.54 W / m2. (skepticalscience.com)