Ocean heat content has continued rising in the last 12 months to December 2013. This is observed in the top 700 meters of depth, as well as down to 2000 meters depth.
What pause in global warming? The Oceans take up about 93 per cent of the solar energy hitting the earth. The graphs show clearly there has been no let up in global warming, with oceans continuing to warm.
While atmospheric temperatures appear to have slowed over the last 15 years - a warming hiatus - but substantial warming is still occurring to the global system including adding heat to the world's oceans, melting Arctic sea ice, and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
NOAA have just released their analysis of 2013 and determined that 2013 tied with 2003 as the fourth warmest year globally since records began in 1880. On ocean temperatures the report said:
"The 2013 global average ocean temperature was 0.48°C (0.86°F) above the 20th century average of 16.1°C (60.9°F) and tied with 2006 as the eighth highest annual temperature on record and the highest since 2010, the last time El Niño conditions were present in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. ENSO-neutral conditions were present in this region during all of 2013."
Ocean heat content from 0 - 700 meters. Source: NOAA
Ocean heat content from 0 - 2000 meters. Source: NOAA
(S Levitus et al 2012) in the 2012 published study, World ocean heat content and thermosteric sea level change (0–2000 m), 1955–2010 detail their important results:
"The World Ocean accounts for approximately 93% of the warming of the earth system that has occurred since 1955. The 700-2000m ocean layer accounted for approximately one-third of the warming of the 0-2000m layer of the World Ocean. The thermosteric component of sea level trend was 0.54 ±.05 mm yr-1 for the 0-2000m layer and 0.41 ±.04 mm yr-1 for the 0-700m layer of the World Ocean for 1955-2010."
Source: Skeptical Science
Read more on Ocean Heat Content at Skeptical Science. Some of their recent articles:
- John Abraham, 5 November 2013 - Oceans heating up faster now than in the past 10,000 years, says new study
- Rob Painting, 24 June 2013 - A Looming Climate Shift: Will Ocean Heat Come Back to Haunt us?
- Dana Nuccitelli, 13 May 2013 - Another Piece of the Global Warming Puzzle - More Efficient Ocean Heat Uptake
- Dana Nuccitelli, 25 May 2012 - Modeled and Observed Ocean Heat Content - Is There a Discrepancy?
- Dana Nuccitelli, 25 April 2012 - Levitus et al. Find Global Warming Continues to Heat the Oceans
- Rob Painting, 24 September 2011 - Ocean Heat Content And The Importance Of The Deep Ocean
Sources:
- NOAA National Oceanographic Data center (NODC) Global Ocean Heat and Salt Content - accessed 12 January 2014
- David Appell, 20 January 2013 - Yet Another Large Jump in Ocean Warming
- S Levitus et al, 2012, Geophysical Research Letters - World ocean heat content and thermosteric sea level change (0–2000 m), 1955–2010 (Full Paper PDF) DOI: 10.1029/2012GL051106
- Bob Henson, UCAR News, 8 January 2014 - INSIDE THE WARMING HIATUS A 15-year pause for some regions and seasons, but not in the ocean
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