The most likely scenario is that suggested by the climate model in Meehl (2011) & Meehl (2013)- the majority of this slowing of surface temperatures is due to natural variabilty (deep ocean warming) superimposed atop a long - term warming trend (greenhouse gas - induced
warming of the surface ocean).
Warming of surface ocean waters is well known, but how the subsurface waters are changing is less clear.
The researchers found that Mount Pinatubo's eruption still kept much of the world dry, even after taking into consideration the drying effects of El Niño an abnormal
warming of surface ocean waters in the eastern tropical Pacific.
It is enhanced too by the formation of deep water in the polar regions, but slowed by
the warming of the surface ocean.
El Niño is an abnormal periodic
warming of surface ocean water off the Pacific coast of South America.
Not exact matches
According to a big chunk
of ocean surface temperature recorded by boat, the
oceans were not
warming nearly as quickly as the rest
of the planet.
The floods have been triggered by the weather event known as El Nino, a
warming of surface temperatures in the Pacific
Ocean that wreaks havoc on weather patterns every few years.
The Atlantic
Ocean surface circulation is an important part
of the Earth's global climate, moving
warm water from the tropics towards the poles.
Those weather patterns are linked to
warmer surface temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic
oceans, respectively, and correlated with the timing
of observed floods on the lower Mississippi.
While it is still possible that other factors, such as heat storage in other
oceans or an increase in aerosols, have led to cooling at the Earth's
surface, this research is yet another piece
of evidence that strongly points to the Pacific
Ocean as the reason behind a slowdown in
warming.
The cycle
of Pacific
Ocean surface water
warming and cooling has become more variable in recent decades, suggesting El Niño may strengthen under climate change
They identified wind patterns that mixed the
warmer surface and colder deep waters to cool the
ocean's
surface and reduce the intensity
of the storm.
And around Antarctica, where even the
surface ocean water is already quite cold and dense, some
of that water in the
ocean depths, which is also carbon rich, eventually
warmed enough so that it became less dense than the water above it.
Higher sea
surface temperatures led to a huge patch
of warm water, dubbed «The Blob,» that appeared in the northern Pacific
Ocean more than two years ago.
The finding surprised the University
of Arizona - led research team, because the sparse instrumental records for sea
surface temperature for that part
of the eastern tropical Pacific
Ocean did not show
warming.
Driven by stronger winds resulting from climate change,
ocean waters in the Southern Ocean are mixing more powerfully, so that relatively warm deep water rises to the surface and eats away at the underside of the
ocean waters in the Southern
Ocean are mixing more powerfully, so that relatively warm deep water rises to the surface and eats away at the underside of the
Ocean are mixing more powerfully, so that relatively
warm deep water rises to the
surface and eats away at the underside
of the ice.
Koslow has researched the impact
of climate - change - driven
warming on what are known as oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), naturally occurring low - oxygen regions found well below the
ocean's
surface.
The simulations suggest that over decades, these
warming events dramatically perturb the
ocean surface, affecting the flow
of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, a system
of currents that acts like a conveyor belt moving water around the planet.
The research, an analysis
of sea salt sodium levels in mountain ice cores, finds that
warming sea
surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific
Ocean have intensified the Aleutian Low pressure system that drives storm activity in the North Pacific.
Scientists define them as periods when the sea
surface in a given area
of the
ocean gets unusually
warm for at least five days in a row.
The more heat in the Pacific, the bigger the El Niño, and right now, 150 metres below the
surface, a ball
of warm water is crossing that
ocean.
They found that adding five years
of strong trade winds created powerful
ocean currents that buried the
warm surface water, bringing cooler water to the
surface.
Studies
of historical records in India suggest that reduced monsoon rainfall in central India has occurred when the sea
surface temperatures in specific regions
of the Pacific
Ocean were
warmer than normal.
«I am very interested in these wind speed increases and whether they may have also played some role in slowing down the
warming at the
surface of the
ocean,» said Prof Sherwood.
Charlie's research told him that during El Niño weather cycles, the
surface seawaters in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, already heated to unusually high levels by greenhouse gas — induced
warming, were being pulsed from a mass
of ocean water known as the Western Pacific
Warm Pool onto the reef's delicate living corals.
So, for example, a big part
of what drives a hurricane is the fact that you've got a lot
of warm water near the
surface of the
ocean that is transferring heat into the air, and that's what's moving up, and that is a big part
of then what's propelling the entire bigger storm system.
Whale sharks that make lengthy dives into the cold
ocean depths to forage tend to spend a lot
of time at the
surface warming up afterward, a new study suggests.
Analyzing data collected over a 20 - month period, scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight center in Greenbelt, Md., and the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology found that the number
of cirrus clouds above the Pacific
Ocean declines with
warmer sea
surface temperatures.
The opposite occurred in 1997 and 1998, when
warm surface waters in the Pacific
Ocean brought about by El Niño pushed rainfall systems north, leaving parts
of the southern and eastern Amazon forest dry and prone to fires.
As
of March 2013,
surface waters
of the tropical north Atlantic
Ocean remained
warmer than average, while Pacific
Ocean temperatures declined from a peak in late fall.
We've narrowed the uncertainty in
surface warming projections by generating thousands
of climate simulations that each closely match observational records for nine key climate metrics, including
warming and
ocean heat content.»
Year - round ice - free conditions across the
surface of the Arctic
Ocean could explain why Earth was substantially
warmer during the Pliocene Epoch than it is today, despite similar concentrations
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
That means studying changes in the Pliocene atmosphere, the land
surface and most
of all the
oceans, which absorb the bulk
of planetary
warming.
Year - round ice - free conditions across the
surface of the Arctic
Ocean could explain why Earth was substantially
warmer during the Pliocene Epoch than it is today, despite similar concentrations
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to new research carried out at the University
of Colorado Boulder.
Schimdt has found evidence that
warm ocean currents and convective forces beneath Europa's frozen shell can cause large blocks
of ice to overturn and melt, bringing vast pockets
of water, sometimes holding as much liquid as all
of the Great Lakes combined, to within several kilometers
of the moon's icy
surface.
The wind keeps a layer
of warm water near the
surface in Indonesia, reducing the temperature difference across the Indian
Ocean and so minimising the strength
of positive IOD events.
El Nino's mass
of warm water puts a lid on the normal currents
of cold, deep water that typically rise to the
surface along the equator and off the coast
of Chile and Peru, said Stephanie Uz,
ocean scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Even as the
surface warms, the deeps remain cool, and this cold water will continue to periodically push the
ocean out
of the El Niño state.
The area boasts the world's
warmest ocean temperatures and vents massive volumes
of warm gases from the
surface high into the atmosphere, which may shape global climate and air chemistry enough to impact billions
of people worldwide.
It's unclear whether this year's strong El Niño event, which is a naturally occurring phenomenon that typically occurs every two to seven years where the
surface water
of the eastern equatorial Pacific
Ocean warms, has had any impact on the Arctic sea ice minimum extent.
The El Nino weather pattern is a
warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific and usually brings hot, dry, and often drought conditions to Australia.
At the same time as the
surface is cooling, the deeper
ocean is
warming, which has already accelerated the decline
of glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment.»
And two, as the
surface of the
ocean warms, its density decreases and the
oceans become more stratified.
«Cold, deep water from this little area
of the Nordic seas, less than 1 %
of the global
ocean, travels the entire planet and returns as
warm surface water.
When it comes to slowing down global
warming, the world's
oceans — 70 percent
of the planet's
surface — may be Homo sapiens» best hope for a stable future.
«
Warm summers could weaken
ocean circulation: Long - term observations reveal the influence
of increased
surface freshening on convection in the subpolar North Atlantic.»
Over the course
of coming decades, though, trade wind speed is expected to decrease from global
warming, Thunell says, and the result will be less phytoplankton production at the
surface and less oxygen utilization at depth, causing a concomitant increase in the
ocean's oxygen content.
El Niño has helped to boost temperatures this year, as it leads to
warmer ocean waters in the tropical Pacific, as well as
warmer surface temperatures in many other spots around the globe, including much
of the northern half
of the U.S..
Invasive species are entering the region with or without shipping, says Ted Scambos
of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado;
warming of the Arctic
Ocean's
surface temperatures has already increased mixing with foreign waters and all the microbes they contain.
For example, scientists have found that El Niño and La Niña, the periodic
warming and cooling
of surface waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific
Ocean, are correlated with a higher probability
of wet or dry conditions in different regions around the globe.