"Oceanic warming" refers to the process of warmer temperatures in the Earth's oceans. It occurs when there is an increase in the average temperature of the ocean waters over a period of time. This warming can have various effects on marine life and the overall climate.
Full definition
Regardless of whether or not the rapid
recent oceanic warming has occurred largely from anthropogenic or natural influences, our study highlights its importance in accounting for the recent observed continental warming.
There are a number of dangerous ecological consequences
from oceanic warming beyond its impact on surface and atmospheric temperatures.
They suggest that the
recent oceanic warming has caused the continents to warm through a different set of mechanisms than usually identified with the global impacts of SST changes.
The most humid region is in the western equatorial Pacific, above the so - called «
oceanic warm pool,» where the highest sea surface temperatures are found.
Hundreds of birds and dolphins have been washing up dead along the Peru coast against a backdrop of
oceanic warming in the region
Gates and van Oppen are aiming to look specifically at areas that have already survived massive bleaching events, such as Moorea in French Polynesia, the central Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and the Seychelles, where 97 % of corals in the inner islands died following the 1997 — 98 El
Niño oceanic warming event.
At the time of this writing, Earth has lost nearly half of its coral, and
oceanic warming only continues to accelerate.
The depth of the thermocline in the west is somewhat limited
because oceanic warming can not continue indefinitely.
In fact it is more likely that observed changes in the trend of global temperature will be the first and simplest indication as to when a global shift from solar /
oceanic warming mode to solar / oceanic cooling mode and vice versa has occurred.
Enhanced oceanic warming along the equator is also evident in the zonal means of Figure 10.6, and can be associated with oceanic heat flux changes (Watterson, 2003) and forced by the atmosphere (Liu et al., 2005).
Given these and other misrepresentations of natural oceanic variability on decadal scales (e.g., Zhang and McPhaden 2006), a role for natural causes of at least some of the
recent oceanic warming should not be ruled out.»
It postulates that methane clathrate at shallow depth begins melting and through the feed - back process accelerate atmospheric and
oceanic warming, melting even larger and deeper clathrate deposits.
The air over Antarctica remains cold, but
oceanic warming can cause the ice on the coast to melt.
When I was at school in the fifties,
the oceanic warm and cold currents were clearly marked and learnt as fact.
From it, I'll only address the SkS «thermal inertia» quote, which Victor took to imply a lag in response: the proposed 21 - year delay between atmospheric warming and
oceanic warming.
Additionally
the oceanic warming and cooling cycles introduce constant, rapid and substantial changes not yet reflected in any models and which invalidate any averaged global estimates of the planetary heat budget.
However for present purposes I will ignore all that and take at face value the assertion that increased CO2 caused
the oceanic warming.
It postulates that methane clathrate at shallow depth begins melting and through the feed - back process accelerate atmospheric and
oceanic warming, melting even larger and deeper clathrate deposits.
Consider, as you say, that «If the warm water heated by the sun is driven by the wind into the deeper layers, and also bringing colder deep waters to the surface, the surface stays cool, the heat is transferred down...» If we agree that
oceanic warming (especially at depth) means more heat in the overall system without a corresponding increase in its radiative efficacy, then from a systems point of view, La Nina warms, not cools.
Rahmstorf references Willis et al. (2004), which found
an oceanic warming rate of 0.86 ± 0.12 watts per square meter (W / m2) of ocean.
For one thing the two negative forcings cancel out much or most of the additional warming from the atmospheric CO2 and for another the atmospheric warming effect is miniscule in relation to
the oceanic warming effect.
The air over Antarctica remains cold, but
oceanic warming can cause the ice on the coast to melt.