Warming of the Southern Ocean Since the 1950s

2002/02/15 by Sarah T. Gille · 6 citations
Environmental Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Climate variability and models #Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes #Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1065863

openalex publication_date 2002/02/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

Autonomous Lagrangian Circulation Explorer floats recorded temperatures in depths between 700 and 1100 meters in the Southern Ocean throughout the 1990s. These temperature records are systematically warmer than earlier hydrographic temperature measurements from the region, suggesting that mid-depth Southern Ocean temperatures have risen 0.17 degrees C between the 1950s and the 1980s. This warming is faster than that of the global ocean and is concentrated within the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, where temperature rates of change are comparable to Southern Ocean atmospheric temperature increases.

Cited by

• THE EFFECTS OF GLOBAL CLIMATE VARIABILITY IN PUP PRODUCTION OF ANTARCTIC FUR SEALS
• The impact of ocean warming on marine organisms
• Fifty-Year Trends in Global Ocean Salinities and Their Relationship to Broad-Scale Warming
• The Ross Sea Dipole – temperature, snow accumulation and sea ice variability in the Ross Sea region, Antarctica, over the past 2700 years
• Effects of climate change on oceans [wikipedia]
• Ocean temperature [wikipedia]