2024/04/11 by Gaël Forget, Gael Forget · 1 voice · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Ocean Waves and Remote Sensing #Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
paper · pdf · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-3979671/v1
crossref issued 2024/04/11 · crossref published 2024/04/11 · openalex publication_date 2024/04/11 · crossref created 2024/04/11 · crossref deposited 2024/04/11 · crossref indexed 2025/05/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/14
Abstract The sunlit ocean layer (SOL), above 200m depth, is where marine life is most abundant and critical climate feedbacks are enabled. Satellite and in-situ temperature data make it evident that this crucial ocean layer is already reacting to global warming, as underscored recently by unprecedented peaks in marine heat waves. Yet, the SOL heat budget is not well understood, globally or regionally, as it remains difficult to estimate processes that control it from observations alone. Here we resolve this issue using an ocean reanalysis and provide the first operational definition of SOL’s energy imbalance (SOL-EI), as a heat budget anomaly relative to the 1981-2010 period. Our estimate of SOL-EI shows that it amounts to a relatively small imbalance between air-sea heat flux and ocean heat transports. Further analysis reveals a recent, tenfold increase in SOL-EI by comparing 2013-2022 with the previous decade, which could have catastrophic environmental consequences.