Global Warming Hot Spots that far exceed rest of ocean

Scientists have identified a series of ocean hot spots that coincide with the east-side currents of major continents.

The hotspots have formed alongside ocean currents that wash the east coast of the major continents and their warming proceeds at a rate far exceeding the average rate of ocean surface warming, according to an international science team whose work was recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

with a combination of multi-national ocean watch systems and computer simulations we have been able to reconstruct an ocean history in which warming over the past century is 2-3 times faster than the global average ocean warming rate," says Dr Cai, a climate scientist at CSIRO's Wealth from Oceans Research Flagship.

Science Daily: Warming in the Tasman Sea, Near Australia, a Global Warming Hot Spot

One of the major problems with these hot spots is that the are less able to take in heat from the atmosphere and thus increasing global warming as a whole.

"We would expect natural change in the oceans over decades or centuries but change with such elevated sea surface temperatures in a growing number of locations and in a synchronised manner was definitely not expected," said CSIRO's Dr Wenju Cai.



ETA:
Since "Global Warming" has become political rather than simply Science; here's a little about the authors.
"Lead author of the paper was Dr Lixin Wu, of the Ocean University of China, with contributing authors from five countries, many of whom are members of the Pacific Ocean Panel working under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organisation."

ok... further fishiness here: A paper by the author which seems to be focused on "Seasonal changes". Dive into this if you like.
American Meteorological Society: Trends in Southern Hemisphere Circulation in IPCC AR4 Models over 1950–99: Ozone Depletion versus Greenhouse Forcing. Wenju Cai and Tim Cowan

Funny how this was released today.
And there was an earlier post on how we are heading towards a mini ice age.

www.dailytelegraph.com.au...

I think that the earth is self regulating itself.

reply to post by grey580


This kind of mess is what happens when Science is controlled by money!

Carbon credits anyone?

You speak of globabl warming when in siberia are -50 degrees celsius and in europe between -15 and -30 .

My first thought is how much effect this has on the Southern Ocean and Antarctica ice.

More evidence that global warming is continuing to accelerate, and all those predictions that nothing will happen for a 100 years are nonsense. We are starting to see serious effects right now.

One more article in this genre:
Enhanced warming over the global subtropical western boundary currents

An analysis indicates that the warm, powerful currents that flow along the western edges of ocean basins warmed more than twice as quickly as the global ocean as a whole over the past century. This enhanced warming could have important effects on climate because these currents affect the air-sea exchange of heat, moisture and carbon dioxide.

While I have not read the article, one thought that comes to mind is a question of how a slow-down of the north Atlantic turnover would show up in global currents. Might one side of the currents begin to warm up faster as not all of the current is carried around the world or to its northern Atlantic destination? Obviously I am not well versed in this field of study, and would have to study the article and any ensuing diagrams of currents and SST, but hey, just a thought....

Warmer currents should speed up ocean circulation, because warmer currents move faster.

This means we will continue to see accelerating global warming.

High levels of CO2 also means that this effect will last a very long time.

Most likely, this is climate change in a form that our planet has never seen.

reply to post by poet1b


I have to agree with you. Just the huge change in much of the US weather pattern is evidence of that. While it could be just a normal weather swing, it will be interesting to see what happens when "Spring and Summer" arrive. So far here on the Canadian border, we have broken about 15 daily high records and temps are running around 0C/32F and even into the mid 50sF. No snow to speak of. We have had 3 days below zero and none of those were major cold days. It's been absolutely nuts, weather wise here. The temps are running normal for March in this region. We are about a month ahead of what seems to be "normal" here.

Here's hoping the weather somehow gets back to "normal", whatever normal means.

Have a great day everyone!
SK

reply to post by SweetKarma


Thanks.

From my understanding, Earth's rotation is the main cause of ocean currents, and weather patterns. The science still hasn't figured it all out yet, but that makes the most sense. I wonder if anyone has looked at the effect the solar wind has on wind and weather.

If the Earth's rotation is the biggest factor, than warmer waters should translate into faster currents in the ocean. This should be especially true in the Southern Ocean that circulates Antarctica.

This would then logically lead the acceleration of the melting of the polar ice on Antarctica.

A little research shows that the "Antarctic Circumpolar Current", ACC, speed is in fact accelerating, and moving southward at the same time, and the temperature of the ACC is also rising faster than the rest of the ocean temperatures.

journals.ametsoc.org...

There is simply too much weather for me to comprehend.
It is 80 below zero in Fairbanks I read. That is freaking cold. How does anything happen when it is that cold? How do you go out and go to work? How do the animals survive?

reply to post by hadriana


Extreme arctic cold is a result of the weak Arctic weather, keeping those cold weather patterns locked into the northern most latitudes.

Meanwhile warmer ocean currents continue to warm the Arctic ocean.

We may have reached a turning point, although it is far too early to tell.

Even the Sahara desert had snow this year

I just see the temperatures drop every year. And there was a Thread a couple of days ago, that Global warming ended 15 years ago

ETA: www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Hellas


That thread linked to a site with no data to back up claims. The thread is a joke.

It occasionally snows in the Sahara. I wonder at what elevation this short lived snowfall occurred. Most likely up in the mountains.

All legitimate sources show we are in an accelerating trend of global warming. It is foolish to ignore this reality.

Originally posted by poet1b
reply to post by Hellas

 

That thread linked to a site with no data to back up claims. The thread is a joke.

It occasionally snows in the Sahara. I wonder at what elevation this short lived snowfall occurred. Most likely up in the mountains.

All legitimate sources show we are in an accelerating trend of global warming. It is foolish to ignore this reality.

I'm by no means an expert. And the snow at the sahara was I believe due to heavy wind which blew the snow there. But my personal experience (living in Greece and visiting Germany in the Winter) is that it does get colder. We even have snow in Greece where it didn't snow for 50 years.

Last year in germany it began snowing in November and stopped in March! Non Stop that is

reply to post by Hellas


Drastic weather changes only indicate that weather patterns are changing.

It means there is considerable climate change ongoing.