#introductions
This is the official account from the Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI SAF). OSI SAF is the dedicated center from @eumetsat for processing and distributing #satellite observation of the #oceans.
The OSI SAF team focuses on #SeaWind, #SeaIce, #SeaSurfaceTemperature and radiative fluxes of the oceans.
"The #oceans absorb 90% of the heat trapped by the #CarbonEmissions from the burning of fossil fuels, making it the clearest indicator of global heating.
The ocean surface temperatures in 2023 were “off the charts”, the researchers said. The primary cause was another year of record carbon emissions, assisted by El Niño. Over the whole year, the average temperature was 0.1C above 2022, but in the second half of 2023 the temperature was an “astounding” 0.3C higher."
“We don’t really know what’s going on,” Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told me. “And we haven’t really known what’s going on since about March of last year.” He called the situation “disquieting.”
I'm no authority, to say the least, but from reading and following this subject for a number of years it seems that for decades the oceans have been predictably "heroic" in absorbing atmospheric heat which has been disbursed in their waters so uniformly that it's been virtually unmeasurable. Those days are now over and the seas have reached their limit and can absorb no more without their temperatures rising. #SST#SeaSurfaceTemperature
Mes p'tits Mastoufoux, suite des bilans de fin d'année : les températures de surface des océans !
Là aussi, l'année 2023 se termine. Le voyage "Terra incognita" aura marqué 10 mois sur 12 !!
Ce n'est plus un petit dérapage....
Peut-être la courbe la plus effrayante de l'année.
"South-east #Australia#marine#heatwave forecast to be literally off the scale - Patch of Tasman sea expected to warm over spring and summer to temperatures that risk significant losses to sea life
Australia’s south-east could be in for a marine heatwave that is literally off the scale, raising the prospect of significant losses in fishing and aquaculture.
The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast a patch of the Tasman Sea off Tasmania and Victoria could be at least 2.5C above average from September to February, and it could get hotter.
Oceanographer Grant Smith said the colour-coded scale the bureau uses to map forecast sea surface temperature anomalies stops at 2.5C. “We didn’t account for anomalies that high when we developed this ... it could be 3C, it could be 3.5C, but we can’t see how high it goes,” he said.
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South-eastern Australia is a known climate change hotspot with its waters warming about four times faster than the global average."
Here is a daily updated plot of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) from 1981 to the present day. It is a frightening graph, and is predicted to only worsen.
"Oceans hit highest ever recorded temperature and set to rise further - Average daily surface temperature of 20.96C breaks 2016 record, with experts saying warmest month for oceans to come - The surface temperature of the world’s oceans has hit its highest ever level as climate breakdown from burning fossil fuels causes the oceans to heat.
Global average daily sea surface temperatures (SST) hit 20.96C this week, breaking the record of 20.95C reached in 2016, according to the Copernicus climate modelling service.
Scientists say it is likely the record will continue to be broken, as usually oceans are at their hottest globally in March, not August.
Dr Samantha Burgess, from Copernicus, said: “The fact that we’ve seen the record now makes me nervous about how much warmer the ocean may get between now and next March.”
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"Sea surface temperature measurements made from ships go back more than 150 years and are some of the longest instrumental records available for understanding the climate. For the past 40 years, there have also been measurements available from satellites and buoys.
From this data, scientists have found that over the full period of the records, global mean sea surface temperature has increased by close to 0.9C, and that the increase over the past four decades is about 0.6C. The latest five-year average is about 0.2C above the average between 1991 and 2020."
"Longer #heatwaves driven by ‘turbo-charged’ climate change, say scientists - Scientists say “turbo-charged” climate change is driving the prolonged period of record temperatures currently baking much of the planet.
As the planet has heated, hotter-than-usual spells have become more intense and now last on average about 24 hours longer than 60 years ago, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Noaa data from the 50 most populous cities in the US shows the heatwave season is 49 days longer now compared with the 1960s.
The effects of heat on health are cumulative, and the body only starts to recover when the temperature drops below 27C (80F). Even small temperature rises can result in increased deaths and illness.
“Extreme heat is killer heat, and multiple-day heatwaves – and early-season ones – are the biggest threat, because people can’t get a break and the body can only sustain it for so long,” said Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science for the climate and energy programme at the Union of Concerned Scientists in the US. “These are not isolated heat events; this is what the turbo-charged climate change world looks like.”
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"Temperatures in Europe are around 10-15C hotter than usual, and the heatwave is lasting a long time, as an established high-pressure system across the region is causing temperatures to climb every day. Clouds of Saharan dust are also making conditions worse.
The sun has heated the sea, too, which is causing a feedback loop, prolonging the heatwave on land. Usually cool air blowing off the Mediterranean brings some relief.
“Unusually high sea surface temperatures are also occurring across the region, with many parts of the Mediterranean seeing surface temperatures as high as 25-28C,” said Rebekah Sherwin, a meteorologist from the Met Office’s global forecasting team. “This will exacerbate the effects of the heat over surrounding land areas, as even in coastal regions overnight temperatures are unlikely to drop much below the mid-20s Celsius.”
From the hottest #global average day, to the highest average #seasurfacetemperature and the lowest #Antarctic#seaice extent - here’s why so many climate records are breaking, all at once
In addition to #ElNino , "another factor likely contributing to the unusual warmth is a reduction in aerosols"
"June was UK’s hottest on record, says Met Office - Average temperature of 15.8C almost a full degree higher than previous highs for the month -
The Met Office has confirmed June was the hottest on record for the UK, eclipsing the last hottest by nearly a full degree.
Across the month, the country recorded an average mean temperature of 15.8C, beating the previous record of 14.9C, recorded in 1940 and 1976.
England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland also reported their respective warmest Junes on record.
The record comes amid increasing anxiety over the pace and scale of climate change. Surface air temperatures worldwide exceeded the 1.5C Paris agreement threshold in June for the first time, and stayed there for several days, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change.
In the north Atlantic ocean, sea surface temperatures have been about 0.5C higher than the previous warmest daily surface temperatures recorded in June. Warming water temperatures have led to mass deaths of fish in inland waterways.
Mark Owen, the Angling Trust’s head of fisheries, said the hot weather had already killed thousands of fish across the country.
Owen said: “Where I was this morning on a canal near Birmingham, fish were caught up against a lock and you saw hundreds of seagulls picking up the dead fish. The stench was really quite amazing.
“If July is like June, if August is like June, then we will get far more fish kills than we’ve ever seen. There is a knock-on effect. The fish are the visible bit because that’s what people see floating on the surface but it is also [about] what is happening to the ecosystem.”
In one case in West Yorkshire, people fishing have reported a stream of dead fish moving past."