Ocean heat content
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Improved estimates of ocean heat content from 1960 to 2015 Open
A new assessment of how much heat Earth has accumulated since 1960 is made by examining ocean heat content changes.
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Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2 °C global warming could be dangerous Open
We use numerical climate simulations, paleoclimate data, and modern observations to study the effect of growing ice melt from Antarctica and Greenland. Meltwater tends to stabilize the ocean column, inducing amplifying feedbacks that incre…
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Three-ocean interactions and climate variability: a review and perspective Open
Interactions among the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans through ocean–atmosphere coupling can initiate and/or modulate climate variability. The Pacific Ocean is home to ENSO which affects other oceans through atmospheric bridges and the…
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Hurricane Harvey Links to Ocean Heat Content and Climate Change Adaptation Open
While hurricanes occur naturally, human‐caused climate change is supercharging them and exacerbating the risk of major damage. Here using ocean and atmosphere observations, we demonstrate links between increased upper ocean heat content du…
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Global Climate Impacts of Fixing the Southern Ocean Shortwave Radiation Bias in the Community Earth System Model (CESM) Open
A large, long-standing, and pervasive climate model bias is excessive absorbed shortwave radiation (ASR) over the midlatitude oceans, especially the Southern Ocean. This study investigates both the underlying mechanisms for and climate imp…
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Global reconstruction of historical ocean heat storage and transport Open
Significance Since the 19th century, rising greenhouse gas concentrations have caused the ocean to absorb most of the Earth’s excess heat and warm up. Before the 1990s, most ocean temperature measurements were above 700 m and therefore, in…
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Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: Observed Transport and Variability Open
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) extends from the Southern Ocean to the northern North Atlantic, transporting heat northwards throughout the South and North Atlantic, and sinking carbon and nutrients into the deep oce…
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Systematic Climate Model Biases in the Large‐Scale Patterns of Recent Sea‐Surface Temperature and Sea‐Level Pressure Change Open
Observed surface temperature trends over recent decades are characterized by (a) intensified warming in the Indo‐Pacific Warm Pool and slight cooling in the eastern equatorial Pacific, consistent with Walker circulation strengthening, and …
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Measuring Global Ocean Heat Content to Estimate the Earth Energy Imbalance Open
The energy radiated by the Earth toward space does not compensate the incoming radiation from the Sun leading to a small positive energy imbalance at the top of the atmosphere (0.4-1 Wm(-2)). This imbalance is coined Earth's Energy Imbalan…
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Upper ocean O<sub>2</sub> trends: 1958–2015 Open
Historic observations of dissolved oxygen (O 2 ) in the ocean are analyzed to quantify multidecadal trends and variability from 1958 to 2015. Additional quality control is applied, and the resultant oxygen anomaly field is used to quantify…
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Accuracy of Global Upper Ocean Heat Content Estimation Expected from Present Observational Data Sets Open
The simplest global mapping method and dense data coverage for the global oceans by the latest observation network ensure an estimate of global ocean heat content (OHC) within a satisfactory uncertainty for the last 60 years. The observati…
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Poleward Shift of the Major Ocean Gyres Detected in a Warming Climate Open
Recent evidence shows that wind‐driven ocean currents, like the western boundary currents, are strongly affected by global warming. However, due to insufficient observations both on temporal and spatial scales, the impact of climate change…
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Drivers of exceptionally cold North Atlantic Ocean temperatures and their link to the 2015 European heat wave Open
The North Atlantic and Europe experienced two extreme climate events in 2015: exceptionally cold ocean surface temperatures and a summer heat wave ranked in the top ten over the past 65 years. Here, we show that the cold ocean temperatures…
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Recurrent replenishment of Labrador Sea Water and associated decadal-scale variability Open
Winter convective overturning in the Labrador Sea reached an "aggregate" maximum depth of 1700 m in 2015—the deepest since 1994—with the resulting Labrador Sea Water (LSW) "year class" being one of the deepest and thickest observed outside…
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An Overview of Ocean Climate Change Indicators: Sea Surface Temperature, Ocean Heat Content, Ocean pH, Dissolved Oxygen Concentration, Arctic Sea Ice Extent, Thickness and Volume, Sea Level and Strength of the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) Open
Global ocean physical and chemical trends are reviewed and updated using seven key ocean climate change indicators: (i) Sea Surface Temperature, (ii) Ocean Heat Content, (iii) Ocean pH, (iv) Dissolved Oxygen concentration (v) Arctic Sea Ic…
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The Indonesian throughflow, its variability and centennial change Open
The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) is an important component of the upper cell of the global overturning circulation that provides a low-latitude pathway for warm, fresh waters from the Pacific to enter the Indian Ocean. Variability and chan…
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The Flux-Anomaly-Forced Model Intercomparison Project (FAFMIP) contribution to CMIP6: investigation of sea-level and ocean climate change in response to CO <sub>2</sub> forcing Open
The Flux-Anomaly-Forced Model Intercomparison Project (FAFMIP) aims to investigate the spread in simulations of sea-level and ocean climate change in response to CO2 forcing by atmosphere–ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs). It is pa…
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Deep and abyssal ocean warming from 35 years of repeat hydrography Open
Global and regional ocean warming deeper than 2000 m is investigated using 35 years of sustained repeat hydrographic survey data starting in 1981. The global long‐term temperature trend below 2000 m, representing the time period 1991–2010,…
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Copernicus Marine Service Ocean State Report, Issue 3 Open
Case study of chapter 3 of report number 3 on Copernicus Marine Service Ocean State. The case studied consisted of the use of the satellite CMEMS and the Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas sentinel network to track ocean warming effects …
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The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service Ocean State Report Open
The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) Ocean State Report (OSR) provides an annual report of the state of the global ocean and European regional seas for policy and decision-makers with the additional aim of increasin…
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Arctic Ocean Amplification in a warming climate in CMIP6 models Open
Arctic near-surface air temperature warms much faster than the global average, a phenomenon known as Arctic Amplification. The change of the underlying Arctic Ocean could influence climate through its interaction with sea ice, atmosphere, …
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Global and Full-Depth Ocean Temperature Trends during the Early Twenty-First Century from Argo and Repeat Hydrography Open
The early twenty-first century’s warming trend of the full-depth global ocean is calculated by combining the analysis of Argo (top 2000 m) and repeat hydrography into a blended full-depth observing system. The surface-to-bottom temperature…
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Southern Ocean Warming Open
The Southern Ocean plays a fundamental role in global climate. With no continental barriers, it distributes climate signals among the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans through its fast-flowing, energetic, and deep-reaching dominant curr…
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Tracking ocean heat uptake during the surface warming hiatus Open
Ocean heat uptake is observed to penetrate deep into the Atlantic and Southern Oceans during the recent hiatus of global warming. Here we show that the deep heat penetration in these two basins is not unique to the hiatus but is characteri…
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Ocean Mesoscale and Frontal-Scale Ocean–Atmosphere Interactions and Influence on Large-Scale Climate: A Review Open
Two decades of high-resolution satellite observations and climate modeling studies have indicated strong ocean–atmosphere coupled feedback mediated by ocean mesoscale processes, including semipermanent and meandrous SST fronts, mesoscale e…
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Global warming-induced upper-ocean freshening and the intensification of super typhoons Open
Super typhoons (STYs), intense tropical cyclones of the western North Pacific, rank among the most destructive natural hazards globally. The violent winds of these storms induce deep mixing of the upper ocean, resulting in strong sea surfa…
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Circum‐Antarctic Shoreward Heat Transport Derived From an Eddy‐ and Tide‐Resolving Simulation Open
Almost all heat reaching the bases of Antarctica's ice shelves originates from warm Circumpolar Deep Water in the open Southern Ocean. This study quantifies the roles of mean and transient flows in transporting heat across almost the entir…
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Insights into Earth’s Energy Imbalance from Multiple Sources Open
The current Earth’s energy imbalance (EEI) can best be estimated from changes in ocean heat content (OHC), complemented by top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiation measurements and an assessment of the small non-ocean components. Sustained observ…
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Atlantic meridional heat transports computed from balancing Earth's energy locally Open
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation plays a major role in moving heat and carbon around in the ocean. A new estimate of ocean heat transports for 2000 through 2013 throughout the Atlantic is derived. Top‐of‐atmosphere radiation…
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Surface warming–induced global acceleration of upper ocean currents Open
How the ocean circulation changes in a warming climate is an important but poorly understood problem. Using a global ocean model, we decompose the problem into distinct responses to changes in sea surface temperature, salinity, and wind. O…