Global Warming Changes in Heat Content

  1. Some people tend to think of Global Warming in term of air temperatures on the surface of the earth. However, the earth is composed of many more things that can absorb heat energy. Interestingly, there is not as much coverage on all the other parts of the earth as they don’t have as much of an impact on our daily lives. The IPCC Technical Summary has some good technical information of where and how the globe is warming.

    On page 47 is Figure TS.15, which list the changes of earths energy content (heating) in terms of 10^22 joules between 1961 to 2003. By far the largest component of the earths energy system are the Oceans. Not just the surface of the oceans, but their entire depth. Ice Caps and Glaciers are other notable components as is the soil of the continents as well. It is a simple matter to convert these values to percentages as shown the following:

    Percent of Heating (1961-2003)
    Oceans 89.3%
    Continents 4.8%
    Atmosphere 3.1%
    Glaciers 1.4%
    Arctic Sea Ice 0.9%
    Antarctic 0.4%
    Greenland 0.1%
    TOTAL 100.0%

    Notice that while the atmosphere has warmed, both the oceans and land have absorbed more heat. Also, all the different forms of ice have totaled about 2.4%, a significant amount compared to the atmosphere’s 3.1% share. To put this into perspective, the rest of the earth has absorbed 30 times as much heat as the atmosphere!

    Also, I’ve noticed some clumsy skeptics like to suggest that global warming is due to changes in the earth’s oceans, implying that the atmosphere has warmed because less heat is being absorbed by the oceans. However, as can be seen from above, just the opposite is true. In fact every major component of the earth is warming and the oceans have been absorbing the bulk of it.

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  3. Here is a NASA article on ocean cooling.

  4. Great article from NASA, but the actual title is "Correcting Ocean Cooling."

    Josh Willis, published a paper showing that the Oceans had cooled between 2003 to 2005. That is possible, but surprising since the there has been an overall global warming during that period as measured from outer space. It took him a while, but eventually he found errors in 2 differant types of ocean temperature measurement devices.

    Notice that while there are some variations over time, the net warming trend is still in place and by far the dominate component of the earth that is warming are the oceans. Also, it is when the oceans cool (or gain less heat) that the atmosphere tends to warm the most.

    Some critics have mistakenly suggested that when the atmosphere cools, it's a sign that global warming has reversed. However, what they forget is that it is during these times that the oceans are warming at an accelerated rate. In other words, it is not just the atmopshere that needs to be considered when discussing GLOBAL warming. The Oceans are actually the dominate component of the globe, while Land and Ice are about the same order of magnitude as the atmosphere. All four components need to be considered.
    Last edited: Feb 11, 2009
  5. Your point is well taken Xnn. I was merely providing the latest data in support.

    The oceans are absorbing the bulk of the net +3W/m2 imbalance between incoming and outgoing radiation.

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