Even
as warmer ocean temperatures provide more fuel for hurricanes, there are several factors that limit how powerful the storms can become.
The other is the recognition that
warming ocean temperatures at the grounding line for the glaciers is driving a really strong flow and thus melting response.
Some of the fluctuations might have been caused by shifting ocean currents related to the Gulf Stream and El Niño — the episodic appearance of
unusually warm ocean temperatures along the west coast of South America.
«Warmer oceans could produce more powerful superstorms: Simulations of Hurricane Sandy
with warmer ocean temperatures resulted in storms more than twice as destructive.»
While El Niño is a cyclical climate phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean — marked
by warmer ocean temperatures in the tropics and a weakening of the usual easterly trade winds — it can impact weather around the globe.
The link
between warming ocean temperatures and stronger storms may be reflected in the close correlation between observed trends in recent sea surface temperatures and observed trends in the intensity of tropical cyclones.
If the theory is correct, and
warmer ocean temperatures cause more intense and more frequent tropical cyclones, then global warming should cause an increase in cyclone activity.
«However, studies like ours can help provide informative answers to the more tractable question of how a perfect storm like Sandy would behave
under warmer ocean temperatures,» Lau said.
His discoveries have also revealed
how warming ocean temperatures and acidification of ocean water caused by climate change lead to coral bleaching and death.
Changes to Antarctic winds have already been linked to southern Australia's drying climate but now it appears they may also have a profound impact
on warming ocean temperatures under the ice shelves along the coastline of West and East Antarctic.
«
Warmer ocean temperatures mean faster melt, faster melt means lower salinity of the sea water as the fresh water locked up into the ice melts and spreads into the ocean,» he said.
Scientists like Mann have also
linked warm ocean temperatures off New England to the dramatic snowfalls that Boston experienced earlier this year — noting that warmer water means there is more moisture in the atmosphere above it.
Forecasters believe the current Kelvin wave and the
already warmer ocean temperatures, signal that the El Niño is going to persist, which was another factor in officially declaring an event.
Reduced Arctic sea ice and unusually
warm ocean temperatures earlier in the summer — conditions thought to be related to the long - term warming of the climate from building greenhouse gases — did not appear related to the disaster, which severely blunted wheat harvests and was blamed for more than 50,000 premature deaths, according to the researchers.
The study concludes significant correlation to
global warming ocean temperatures continue to increase, and that further studies «this decline will need to be considered in future studies of marine ecosystems, geochemical cycling, ocean circulation and fisheries.»
California can also
expect warmer ocean temperatures, which may result in some creatures visiting their beaches that normally don't, such as the Red crab, according to Marine Science.
Methane bubbles are coming up from ocean vents off the Washington and Oregon coast, and a new study
identified warming ocean temperatures one - third of a mile below the surface as likely responsible.
Acidification and warming are likely to interact: Acidification, for example, weakens the ability of coral reefs to recover from bouts of bleaching caused
by warm ocean temperatures and might also harm other species near the base of the ocean food chain.
However researchers have noted the relationship
between warmer ocean temperatures and «bleaching has been equivocal and sometimes negative when the coolest regions were not in the analyses.»
Ecologists have watched in horror as
unusually warm ocean temperatures have prompted corals to «bleach», or expel the symbiotic algae that provide much of their food.
Climate modeling shows that the trends
of warming ocean temperatures, stronger winds and increasingly strong upwelling events are expected to continue in the coming years as carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere increase.
In general,
warmer ocean temperatures at the end of the Amazon's wet season lead to reductions in rainfall and soil moisture at the beginning of the dry season.
In order to build up and intensify, hurricanes
require warm ocean temperatures, moist air, and low vertical wind shear (i.e. no strong change in wind speed or direction between two different altitudes).
Researchers looked at heat waves and longer - lasting extreme heat events in Korea, Australia, Argentina, Europe and
warm ocean temperatures in parts of the Pacific and Atlantic.
This year's Atlantic hurricane season will be «above normal,» with 12 to 18 storms, thanks in part to unusually
warm ocean temperatures, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said yesterday.
Scientists blame unusually
warm ocean temperatures this year for the mass devastation of the world's corals