2018 was the hottest year for the world's oceans

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The year 2018 exceeded the previous record set the year before, in 2017; the five best years of ocean heat have occurred in the last five years. Last year, global warming in the ocean continued its surprising trend as a direct result of global warming by humans, the authors said.

The same group of scientists released a study last week showing that the oceans are warming faster than expected, absorbing more heat than was previously known. This will result in a six – fold increase in ocean warming by 2081-2100 from the past 60 years.

The warming of the oceans poses various problems, such as sea level rise, more intense storms with more abundant rainfall, coral bleaching and melting polar ice.

The increasing amount of heat-trapping gases, such as carbon dioxide, released into the atmosphere by humans, creates an energy imbalance that results in global warming.

"The vast majority of the heat caused by global warming eventually settles in the world's oceans," say the authors, making it one of the best, if not the best, indicators of climate change. In fact, studies show that more than 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases is absorbed by the ocean.

"Increasing the heat of the oceans is an irrefutable proof of global warming," the study says.

Ocean heat shows global warming

Oceanic heat content (OHC) in the 2000 m higher altitude in 2018.

Kevin Trenberth, a scientist with the Climate Analysis section of the US National Center for Atmospheric Research and co-author of the study, said the ocean heat trend was a better one. climate change indicator that the air temperature.

"The overall recording of the average temperature at the surface is strongly influenced by weather conditions, El Nino, etc.," said Trenberth. "The warming signal from the ocean is much more visible and less noisy."

This graph shows how much the increase in the heat content of the oceans is comparable to that of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Impacts of warmer oceans

According to the authors of the study, the effects of ocean warming were clearly visible over the past year.

The added heat resulted in an average rise in sea level of 29.5 millimeters above the 1981-2010 average., which was the largest ever observed. Sea level rise makes coastal communities more vulnerable to storm surges, coastal erosion and the intrusion of freshwater into the seawater.

Climate change worsens storms like Hurricane Florence
Warmer water has fueled several major hurricanes and typhoons around the world in 2018, including hurricanes Michael and Florence, which caused massive wind and devastating floods in the southeastern United States, and the super typhoon. Mangkhut, the most violent storm of the year, which caused damage to the Philippines and Hong Kong.
The warmer water also allows the air to retain more moisture, which supercharges Hurricane Florence's rainfall in the Carolinas. The warmer than normal ocean waters in the Indian Ocean Pacific have also been at the origin of major floods in Japan and India.
Other impacts of warmer oceans include the bleaching and death of coral reefs, which have been important in recent years in the Great Barrier Reef off Australia.
The melting of sea ice and ice trays is another consequence of the added heat in the oceans and can also contribute to sea level rise when land ice empties into the ocean. An unrelated study released earlier this week revealed that warmer ocean temperatures had melted the Antarctic ice at an accelerated rate.
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