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For nearly a year now, the average surface temperature in the North Atlantic has been at its highest daily level every day since measurements began nearly 40 years ago; this is often well ahead of the previous daily record.
This emerges from data from the “Climate Reanalyzer” platform at the University of Maine, which is based, among other things, on satellite measurements. The continuous curve of daily record temperatures in the North Atlantic began on March 7 last year. For the world’s oceans as a whole, this process began on March 14.
“If you look at how the temperature evolution in the oceans has been over the last 40 years, you can see that the current warming is really far outside natural fluctuations,” said Anders Levermann from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). To the German press agency (dpa). “It’s also outside of what we’ve observed in terms of warming in recent years and decades.”
Cause climate change and other factors
Levermann explained that there must be other dynamic effects in addition to sustained human-made warming. It’s not yet clear how many of these are actually caused or worsened by global warming.” For example, the climate phenomenon El Niño is currently pumping heat from ocean depths in the Pacific.
Mojib Latif of the Geomar Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Kiel also hypothesizes that El Niño increases warming; Previously, La Niña, which was the opposite, reduced the warming considerably. However, both emphasize the impact of human-induced climate change: “The main reason why the oceans are so hot is, of course, humans. “You must not forget this,” said Latif.
Oceans “a very good indicator”
Latif wasn’t surprised by the records. “Oceans are a very good indicator of global warming,” he told DPA. Oceans absorb more than 90 percent of the remaining heat in the atmosphere due to the increase in greenhouse gases. “It is clear that as the Earth continues to warm, the oceans will also warm.”
“What is creating a certain amount of surprise at the moment is this particularly warm Atlantic,” said Helge Gössling, a climate physicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven. “By the way, the South Atlantic has now been added. “It has also been unusually hot since December.” This needs to be investigated in more detail.
Gössling told dpa that the future course of the temperature curve will be interesting. “In fact, all forecasts assume that El Niño will disappear during the spring and possibly even turn into La Niña later.” La Niña is most likely between July or August. The World Weather Organization (WMO) has already noted that El Niño is weakening. But its effects on the global climate continue to be felt.
New shipping rules and winds may also play a role
According to Gössling, there are several possible explanations for the warming in the North Atlantic. Ship emissions have been subject to stricter regulations since 2020. “This means that the sulfur compounds emitted are now reduced.” The compounds have a cooling effect on the climate. However, this is unlikely to explain the entire anomaly in the Atlantic. According to Gössling, the weak trade winds in spring 2023, which are considered to be responsible for the warming, are also excluded as an explanation: This development should have diminished over the winter, but it did not.
“So I still have no idea how we can actually explain this anomaly that we are now seeing globally and above all in the North Atlantic,” Levermann emphasized. “This is truly remarkable.”
Underwater volcano and solar radiation
Besides the high values in the oceans, there are other factors currently affecting global air temperature, according to Gössling: At the beginning of 2022, an underwater volcano erupted, sending large amounts of water vapor into the stratosphere. Roughly estimated, this contributes to one-twentieth of the degree of warming. Additionally, the sun’s radiation fluctuates in an eleven-year cycle. Another twentieth of a degree may be added as it is now moving into a strong phase. “I’m talking about small impacts, but they can add up.”
But he is also confident that “in the long run, the real cause is climate change from man-made greenhouse gases.” According to the World Weather Organization, atmospheric concentrations of the main greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have reached record levels since records began in 2022. According to Gössling, ocean data clearly show a relatively steady increase in the amount of heat absorbed by the oceans.
Sea levels are rising and extreme weather is on the rise
“We have observed a global average warming of 1.2 degrees, and the continents have already warmed by more than two degrees on average,” Levermann said. As the sea warms, the water in it expands. Levermann says melting ice is causing sea levels to rise increasingly rapidly: “At the beginning of the last century we had a rise in sea level of about one centimeter per decade, at the beginning of this century we had a rise of about three centimeters and at the beginning of this century we had a rise of about ten centimeters. Now we have five.” around.”
The expert emphasized that warming also has fatal consequences for marine ecosystems. Warming oceans are disrupting countless food chains and webs. “This has consequences not only for marine life, but also for fisheries and therefore for human nutrition.”
In addition, more devastating extreme weather events are also expected: Oceanographer Latif pointed out that heavy rains may become more frequent as more water evaporates and warmer air can hold more water vapor, which will eventually fall as precipitation. (SDA)
Source : Blick
I am Dawid Malan, a news reporter for 24 Instant News. I specialize in celebrity and entertainment news, writing stories that capture the attention of readers from all walks of life. My work has been featured in some of the world’s leading publications and I am passionate about delivering quality content to my readers.
