More solar energy increases the speed of processes in the biosphere and thus the carbon cycle and
by warming the ocean surface reduces it's ability to absorb CO2.
When four hurricanes of extraordinary strength tore through Florida last fall, there was little media attention paid to the fact that hurricanes are made more intense
by warming ocean surface waters.
It simply isn't conceivable that a mere 55 % of human emissions, (after deducting the so called airborne fraction) offsets the entire absorption changes caused globally and naturally
by warmer ocean surfaces.
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.
Gerald Meehl, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research who was also an author on the paper, said this research expanded on past work, including his own research, that pointed to the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation as a factor in a
warming slowdown
by finding a mechanism behind how the Pacific
Ocean was able to store enough heat to produce a pause in
surface 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.
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.
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.
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.»
Due to the cooling dissolved material now partially precipitates as fine particles, which are carried
by the
warm water to the
ocean's
surface.
Roth asks, «Do the vents extend down to a subsurface
ocean or are the ejecta simply from
warmed ice caused
by friction stresses near the
surface?»
El Niño is characterized
by a large area of
warmer - than - average
ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific.
The effects of wind changes, which were found to potentially increase temperatures in the Southern
Ocean between 660 feet and 2,300 feet below the surface by 2 °C, or nearly 3.6 °F, are over and above the ocean warming that's being caused by the heat - trapping effects of greenhouse g
Ocean between 660 feet and 2,300 feet below the
surface by 2 °C, or nearly 3.6 °F, are over and above the
ocean warming that's being caused by the heat - trapping effects of greenhouse g
ocean warming that's being caused
by the heat - trapping effects of greenhouse gases.
Terrestrial hurricanes are powered
by heat released from
warm ocean surfaces.
The reason could be linked to rising sea
surface temperatures — fueled in part
by global
warming — as seen in
ocean buoy data collected along the U.S. coast.
With the contribution of such record warmth at year's end and with 10 months of the year record
warm for their respective months, including the last 8 (January was second
warmest for January and April was third
warmest), the average global temperature across land and
ocean surface areas for 2015 was 0.90 °C (1.62 °F) above the 20th century average of 13.9 °C (57.0 °F), beating the previous record warmth of 2014
by 0.16 °C (0.29 °F).
The East Pacific
Ocean (90S - 90N, 180 - 80W) has not
warmed since the start of the satellite - based Reynolds OI.v2 sea
surface temperature dataset, yet the multi-model mean of the CMIP3 (IPCC AR4) and CMIP5 (IPCC AR5) simulations of sea
surface temperatures say, if they were
warmed by anthropogenic forcings, they should have
warmed approximately 0.42 to 0.44 deg C.
The Center for
Ocean Solutions writes: «Between 1951 and 1993 zooplankton biomass off Southern California decreased
by 80 % as a result of
warming surface waters.»
These
oceans were formed
by tidal heating, that is,
warming of the ice caused
by friction between the
surface ice and the core as a result of the gravitational interaction between the planet and the moon.
A large ensemble of Earth system model simulations, constrained
by geological and historical observations of past climate change, demonstrates our self ‐ adjusting mitigation approach for a range of climate stabilization targets ranging from 1.5 to 4.5 °C, and generates AMP scenarios up to year 2300 for
surface warming, carbon emissions, atmospheric CO2, global mean sea level, and
surface ocean acidification.
The
warming of the
oceans by sunlight, makes the daytime
surface waters more bouyant than the cooler waters below and this leads to stratification - a situation where the
warmer water floats atop cooler waters underneath, and is less inclined to mix.
ENSO events, for example, can
warm or cool
ocean surface temperatures through exchange of heat between the
surface and the reservoir stored beneath the oceanic mixed layer, and
by changing the distribution and extent of cloud cover (which influences the radiative balance in the lower atmosphere).
A circular room studded with windows eight metres (26 feet) beneath the
ocean's
surface reveals up to 300 species of colourful coral, fish and other marine life, fed
by an unusually
warm current.
ENSO events, for example, can
warm or cool
ocean surface temperatures through exchange of heat between the
surface and the reservoir stored beneath the oceanic mixed layer, and
by changing the distribution and extent of cloud cover (which influences the radiative balance in the lower atmosphere).
Since OHC uptake efficiency associated with
surface warming is low compared with the rate of radiative restoring (increase in energy loss to space as specified
by the climate feedback parameter), an important internal contribution must lead to a loss rather than a gain of
ocean heat; thus the observation of OHC increase requires a dominant role for external forcing.
The current Landsea / Trenberth / Emanuel discussion has been parsed
by many to mean that Landsea claims that the number of hurricanes is constant, and Trenberth is claiming that their intensity should increase as global
warming heats the
ocean surface.
5 Earth's
surface and deep
ocean waters
warmed by ∼ 5 ◦ C, of which part may have oc - curred prior to the CIE.. However, few records document continental climatic trendsand changes in seasonality have not been documented.
Geoengineering proposals fall into at least three broad categories: 1) managing atmospheric greenhouse gases (e.g.,
ocean fertilization and atmospheric carbon capture and sequestration), 2) cooling the Earth
by reflecting sunlight (e.g., putting reflective particles into the atmosphere, putting mirrors in space to reflect the sun's energy, increasing
surface reflectivity and altering the amount or characteristics of clouds), and 3) moderating specific impacts of global
warming (e.g., efforts to limit sea level rise
by increasing land storage of water, protecting ice sheets or artificially enhancing mountain glaciers).
It seems clear to me that the
ocean surface warming is being suppressed
by its large heat capacity, while the land has very little heat capacity and is not being suppressed (rather than amplified).
Are the episodes thought to be actual changes in the amount of heat being radiated
by the planet (because the
surface of the
ocean gets
warmer and cooler, does the actual infrared flux from the top of the atmosphere then change as a result)?
... a pronounced strengthening in Pacific trade winds over the past two decades — unprecedented in observations / reanalysis data and not captured
by climate models — is sufficient to account for the cooling of the tropical Pacific and a substantial slowdown in
surface warming through increased subsurface
ocean heat uptake.
Another example would be the data showing some expected
warming in the
surface / mid layers of the
oceans as reported
by Levitus et.
It is enhanced too
by the formation of deep water in the polar regions, but slowed
by the
warming of the
surface ocean.
The current energy imbalance at the
surface (as demonstrated
by the increasing heat content of the
oceans) implies there is at least a further 0.5 deg C
surface warming in the «pipeline».
Abstract:... Here we show that a pronounced strengthening in Pacific trade winds over the past two decades — unprecedented in observations / reanalysis data and not captured
by climate models — is sufficient to account for the cooling of the tropical Pacific and a substantial slowdown in
surface warming through increased subsurface
ocean heat uptake.
Temperature tends to respond so that, depending on optical properties, LW emission will tend to reduce the vertical differential heating
by cooling
warmer parts more than cooler parts (for the
surface and atmosphere); also (not significant within the atmosphere and
ocean in general, but significant at the interface betwen the
surface and the air, and also significant (in part due to the small heat fluxes involved, viscosity in the crust and somewhat in the mantle (where there are thick boundary layers with superadiabatic lapse rates) and thermal conductivity of the core) in parts of the Earth's interior) temperature changes will cause conduction / diffusion of heat that partly balances the differential heating.
As the area / volume ratio for the NH parts of the
oceans is practically the same as for the SH, the
surface heating (W / m2) must be larger in the NH parts, within the constraints of heat exchange via
ocean and air currents (and partly
by the difference in
warming area in the tropics vs. the cooling areas in the higher latitudes)...
Also, if you look at Table T2 in this paper, you will see that
ocean sea surface heat storage 0 - 700m from 1955 - 2003 (in W / m2) is always higher at northern latitudes than the corresponding southern latitudes in every case, even with the extensive Southern Ocean warming as noted by Gavin responding to
ocean sea
surface heat storage 0 - 700m from 1955 - 2003 (in W / m2) is always higher at northern latitudes than the corresponding southern latitudes in every case, even with the extensive Southern
Ocean warming as noted by Gavin responding to
Ocean warming as noted
by Gavin responding to # 18.
IF cool deep sea water were mixed relentlessly with
surface water
by some engineering method --(e.g. lots of wave operated pumps and 800m pipes) could that enouromous cool reservoir of water a) mitigate the thermal expansion of the
oceans because of the differential in thermal expansion of cold and
warm water, and b) cool the atmosphere enough to reduce the other wise expected effects of global
warming?
So, if each underwater artic volcano emitted 1 km3 a week (a rather large average flow) and did it for a year (about 52 weeks) you would need about 620 very active and extremely powerful volcanoes in order to
warm the artic
ocean by just 1 C (and that ignores
surface cooling, in / out water flows and time rates that would require even more volcanoes.)
It stands to reason that the
oceans haven't been that
warm in a while but since the average temperature of the whole mass of water is so dependent on circulation (it's only the
surface temperature that's constrained
by its interactions with the atmosphere and space), I suppose a plausible history of that particular value would be very hard to reconstruct.
In many
ocean models, the free
surface effects are neglected and replaced
by a rigid lid, yet they still get a
warm pool.
The real problem here is that this AMO explanation was picked up and broadcast
by the press in a very uncritical manner, usually in these terms: «
Surface waters of the Atlantic
ocean warm up then cool down in long, subtle cycles.
The
ocean's
surface begins to
warm, but before it can heat up much, the
surface water is mixed down and replaced
by colder water from below.
For example: 1) plants giving off net CO2 in hot conditions (r / t aborbing)-- see: http://www.climateark.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=46488 2) plants dying out due to heat & drought & wild fires enhanced
by GW (reducing or cutting short their uptake of CO2 & releasing CO2 in the process) 3)
ocean methane clathrates melting, giving off methane 4) permafrost melting & giving off methane & CO2 5) ice & snow melting, uncovering dark
surfaces that absorb more heat 6) the
warming slowing the thermohaline
ocean conveyor & its up - churning of nutrients — reducing marine plant life & that carbon sink.
The mixed layer of the
ocean is mixed (pretty much
by definition) thus the net fluxes at the
surface (latent heat, sensible heat, long wave up and down, short wave down)
warm or cool the whole layer.
Albedo from medium / low level clouds
warms or cools the
ocean surface by increasing or decreasing over time across the global
surface.
The heat from the
ocean below the
surface skin tends to
warm the very top
by convection and conduction.
These record temperatures have been assisted
by a very strong El Niño event, which brought
warm water to the
ocean surface, temporarily
warming global
surface temperatures.