A new perspective on warming of the global oceans
Permanent Link:

Material Information

Title:
A new perspective on warming of the global oceans
Series Title:
Geophysical Research Letters Volume 36
Creator:
Palmer, M.D.
Good, S.A.
Haines, K.
Rayner, N.A.
Stott, P.A.
Affiliation:
Met Office Hadley Centre
Met Office Hadley Centre
University of Reading -- Environmental Systems Science Centre
Met Office Hadley Centre
Met Office Hadley Centre
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union
Publication Date:
Language:
English

Notes

Abstract:
Changes in ocean circulation associated with internal climate variability have a major influence on upper ocean temperatures, particularly in regions such as the North Atlantic, which are relatively well-observed and therefore over-represented in the observational record. As a result, global estimates of upper ocean heat content can give misleading estimates of the roles of natural and anthropogenic factors in causing oceanic warming. We present a method to quantify ocean warming that filters out the natural internal variability from both observations and climate simulations and better isolates externally forced air-sea heat flux changes. We obtain a much clearer picture of the drivers of oceanic temperature changes, being able to detect the effects of both anthropogenic and volcanic influences simultaneously in the observed record. Our results show that climate models are capable of capturing in remarkable detail the externally forced component of ocean temperature evolution over the last five decades.

Record Information

Source Institution:
Florida International University
Rights Management:
Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the user's responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights.

dpSobek Membership

Aggregations:
Sea Level Rise