In 2022, the ocean will reach its hottest level on record for the fourth year in a row, according to a new report from two scientists. The previous high temperature records were broken in 2021, 2020 and 2019 respectively, and the top six hottest levels all occurred in the last six years.
This is an ominous sign of the rate at which the world is warming.
The world’s oceans are giant radiators — they absorb as much as 90 percent of excess heat in the atmosphere. As the air warms rapidly due to greenhouse gas emissions, the oceans are absorbing more and more heat over time.
The new record was announced on Wednesdayjust days after scientists at the European Copernicus Climate Change Service Announce 2022 is the fifth warmest year on record for Earth. 2016, 2020, 2019 and 2017 were also among the top five, according to the agency.
It’s all part of a long-term pattern of global warming, ocean and atmosphere changes.
The Ocean Report, led by Cheng Lijing, a scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, noted that since 1958 — when scientists first started making reliable measurements of ocean heat — each decade has been hotter than the last. The rate of warming has accelerated over time. The rate at which the oceans store heat has increased three to fourfold since the late 1980s.
Some regions are warming faster than others. Four major basins set their own regional heat records in 2022, including the North Pacific, North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Southern Oceans.
That’s not all. The report also found that oceans are becoming more stratified, meaning that warm and cold blobs of water no longer mix as easily, but instead get stuck on top of each other like layers on a cake.
Stratification makes it harder for heat, oxygen, and vital nutrients to travel throughout the water column. This damages marine ecosystems and traps heat near the surface, which then further warms the atmosphere.
Rising ocean heat has other serious implications for the rest of the planet.
Water expands as it warms. This means that the ocean takes up more space as it stores more heat, causing sea levels to rise.
Warmer oceans are also helping to alter weather patterns around the world. They have a major impact on the world’s hydrological cycle, leading to more severe droughts in some places and more extreme rainfall in others. Warmer waters also fuel tropical cyclones, increasing the intensity of hurricanes.
The past year has also broken records for extreme weather around the world. Europe has experienced unprecedented heat. China has experienced a record drought. The United States suffers from heat waves, wildfires, floods and hurricanes.A sort of NOAA’s latest report Finds that the United States experienced 18 climate-related disasters in 2022, each costing more than $1 billion.
Climate models predict these patterns will continue as the world continues to warm. Meanwhile, the oceans will continue to steadily absorb more heat.
“Until we reach net-zero emissions, heating will continue, and we will continue to break records for ocean heat content, as we have done this year,” study co-author Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. “Increasing awareness and understanding of the ocean is fundamental to action on climate change.”
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