The surface temperature of the oceans has reached new records worldwide. According to preliminary data from the American platform ‘Climate Reanalyzer’, the global average has been 21.1 degrees for about two weeks – a value that has never been reached in the approximately 40 years from registration to 2022. The temperature is therefore constantly well above the usual values for the month of August – and according to scientists will continue to rise.
The oceans have been extraordinarily warm for almost six months now and since March the surface of the world’s oceans has had record temperatures for the month in question. At the beginning of April, temperatures had been at 21.1 degrees for several days, higher than ever since the start of the evaluation. Before that, a record of 21 degrees was measured in March 2016.
Greenhouse gases are responsible for the heat in the sea
The evaluations of ‘Climate Reanalyzer’ of the University of Maine are so-called reanalyses, model calculations are also included in addition to real measured weather data. The final temperature analyzes will follow later.
Human-made greenhouse gases are the main reason for the increase. Mojib Latif of the Geomar Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Kiel recently explained that more than 90 percent of the heat they generate is absorbed by the oceans. As a result, they have become considerably warmer down to a depth of 2000 metres, and in some places even deeper. Now, according to Latif, the climate phenomenon El Niño is increasing. The natural weather phenomenon could also push up temperatures, which are already rising in the course of the climate crisis.
Values have tripled since the 1980s
The rate at which the oceans are warming has at least tripled since the late 1980s, according to a study presented earlier this year. The amount of heat in ocean layers down to 2,000 meters will peak in 2022, the research team reported in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.
2023 should bring new record values. “Until we reach carbon neutrality, the warming trend will continue and we will see new ocean heat records every year,” said study co-author Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania.
Source: Krone
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