Insights into the role of the ocean in the Earth's energy budget
Abstract
The energy budget of the Earth is a key determinant for the state and evolution of climate on our planet. Perturbations of this budget from internal or external climate variations create a radiative flux imbalance at the top of the atmosphere. There is a current positive Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI), which is mostly caused by human activity. The EEI is driving global warming, and improving the accuracy of EEI state and rate of change is critical to advance our understanding and prediction of the evolution of Earth's climate. The majority (> 90%) of the accumulated heat from a positive EEI is stored in the ocean, and today, the EEI can best be estimated from changes in ocean heat content, complemented by radiation measurements from space. A view in the interior of the ocean is then critical for the evaluation of the EEI as this delivers us a unique insight into the role of the oceans as energetic buffer and regulator through its capacity to absorb and to redistribute large amounts of heat around the planet. Consistency checks through physical budget constraints with the combined use of climate observations (in situ, remote sensing) and tools (reanalysis, climate models) have a large potential to deliver a robust uncertainty assessment, to shed new light on unresolved climate science issues, provide climate observing system recommendations, and to strengthen the exchange between multi-disciplinary experts all concerned with the energy flow through the climate system. This talk will discuss the role of the ocean for EEI estimates, deliver results from international efforts on the EEI, will identify recommendations for the global ocean observing system, and presents new results on the role of ocean heat redistribution for the EEI budget closure.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMGC43B..01V
- Keywords:
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- 3305 Climate change and variability;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 1616 Climate variability;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1621 Cryospheric change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1635 Oceans;
- GLOBAL CHANGE