The Human Impacts Database

A collection of useful numbers for quantifying the impacts of the human presence on Earth.

Annual average warming of upper ocean

WaterOceans & Seas

This quantity is a single measurement of the quantity at a given point in time (1992-2015).

Value:

This is equivalent to...

(11 ± 0.7) × 10-3 °F / yr
HuID: 51068
Relevant Year(s): 1992-2015
Summary: Average annual temperature increase of the top 700 m of the ocean, for period 1992-2015. Temperature increase computed from the ocean heat uptake of the upper 700 m of the ocean, using the density and specific heat of seawater, as well as the surface area of the ocean. Ocean heat uptake reported in Table S1 (supplementary information) of the article.
Method: Uncertainty represents the 95% confidence interval. Estimate is obtained using in situ temperature data and model simulations. In situ temperature from 1960 to 2015 are obtained from the World Ocean Database (WOD) from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). The quality flags provided by WOD were used to remove erroneous profiles and measurements. In situ temperature data are combined with covariances from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) multi-model simulations to provide an improved prior guess.
Source: Cheng, L., Trenberth, K. E., Fasullo, J., Boyer, T., Abraham, J. and Zhu, J. Improved estimates of ocean heat content from 1960 to 2015. Science Advances (2017)
Dataset: Upper ocean temperature change (temp_trends_cheng2017.csv)
global resolution
Added By: ilopezgo