Not only are rising temperatures leading to rising sea levels but most of the increase in energy in the climate system is occurring in the ocean.
A new study from UNSW Sydney has shown that a relatively new ocean temperature measuring program – the Argo system of floating sensors – can help tell us which climate modeling we should be paying attention to the most.
The Argo floats are loaded with high-tech equipment that measures ocean temperatures to depths of up to 2000 meters. Each Argo float sends measurements to satellites which beams the data to analysis centers around the world. There are more than 3500 floats dispersed around the globe.
Argo floats offer unprecedented real-time monitoring of ocean temperatures that will help oceanographers and climate scientists constrain their climate projections based on this higher resolution and accuracy of data.
Land and air temperatures only tell part of the story of the planet’s overall heat absorption. According to Professor John Church,”More than 90 percent of the energy trapped by greenhouse gases is stored in the ocean and only about 1 percent in the warming atmosphere.”
“Even if we take strong steps now to limit emissions to the upper bound of the Paris Agreement target of 2oC global surface warming, ocean temperatures are still projected to rise five to nine times the observed warming by 2081–2100, with 8 to 14cm rise in sea levels from the expansion of warmed ocean waters alone.”
With no strong efforts to rein in emissions, oceans are set to warm by 11 to 15 times the warming observed by Argo in 2005-2019, with sea levels projected to rise 17 to 26 cm from the expansion of warmed ocean waters alone, and further rises from the addition of water to the ocean from glaciers and ice sheets.
https://phys.org/news/2021-09-ocean-temperature-scientists-hot.html