Surface warming hiatus caused by increased heat uptake across multiple ocean basins

The first decade of the twenty-first century was characterised by a hiatus in global surface warming. Using ocean model hindcasts and reanalyses we show that heat uptake between the 1990s and 2000s increased by 0.7 ± 0.3Wm -2 . Approximately 30% of the increase is associated with colder sea surface...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Drijfhout, S.S., Blaker, A.T., Josey, S.A., Nurser, A.J.G., Sinha, B., Balmaseda, M.A.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
Indian
Pacific
Southern Ocean
North Atlantic
Online Access:https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/371752/
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/371752/1/grl52305.pdf
Description
Summary:The first decade of the twenty-first century was characterised by a hiatus in global surface warming. Using ocean model hindcasts and reanalyses we show that heat uptake between the 1990s and 2000s increased by 0.7 ± 0.3Wm -2 . Approximately 30% of the increase is associated with colder sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific. Other basins contribute via reduced heat loss to the atmosphere, in particular the Southern and subtropical Indian Oceans (30%), and the subpolar North Atlantic (40%). A different mechanism is important at longer timescales (1960s-present) over which the Southern Annular Mode trended upwards. In this period, increased ocean heat uptake has largely arisen from reduced heat loss associated with reduced winds over the Agulhas Return Current and southward displacement of Southern Ocean westerlies.

Similar Items