Number of papers on this page: 6

The Response of the Ocean Thermal Skin Layer to Variations in Incident Infrared Radiation — JGR Oceans, 2018; Wong & Minnett

“This paper investigates the physical mechanism between the absorption of IR radiation and its effect on heat transfer at the air-sea boundary. The hypothesis is that given the heat lost through the air-sea interface is controlled by the TSL, the TSL adjusts in response to variations in incident IR radiation to maintain the surface heat loss. This modulates the flow of heat from below and hence controls upper ocean heat content. This hypothesis is tested using the increase in incoming longwave radiation from clouds and analyzing vertical temperature profiles in the TSL retrieved from sea-surface emission spectra. The additional energy from the absorption of increasing IR radiation adjusts the curvature of the TSL such that the upward conduction of heat from the bulk of the ocean into the TSL is reduced. The additional energy absorbed within the TSL supports more of the surface heat loss. Thus, more heat beneath the TSL is retained leading to the observed increase in upper ocean heat content.”

Satellite-based time-series of sea-surface temperature since 1980 for climate applications — Nature, 2024; Embury et al.

Shows that global sea-surface temperatures have NOT followed a curve corresponding to CO2.

Switch Between El Nino and La Nina is Caused by Subsurface Ocean Waves Likely Driven by Lunar Tidal Forcing — Nature 2019; Lin & Quian

“Here, we demonstrate that the switch between El Nino and La Nina is caused by a subsurface ocean wave propagating from western Pacific to central and eastern Pacific and then triggering development of SST anomaly. This is based on analysis of all ENSO events in the past 136 years using multiple long-term observational datasets. The wave’s slow phase speed and decoupling from atmosphere indicate that it is a forced wave. Further analysis of Earth’s angular momentum budget and NASA’s Apollo Landing Mirror Experiment suggests that the subsurface wave is likely driven by lunar tidal gravitational force.”

Florida Current transport observations reveal four decades of steady state — Nature Communications, 2024; Volkov et al.

“Here, we reassess motion-induced voltages measured on a submarine cable and reevaluate the overall trend in the inferred FC transport. We find that the cable record beginning in 2000 requires a correction for the secular change in the geomagnetic field. This correction removes a spurious trend in the record, revealing that the FC has remained remarkably stable.”

HOW EFFECTIVE IS GREENHOUSE (GH) WARMING OF SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES (SST)? — International seminars on nuclear war and planetary emergencies, 2006; S. Fred Singer

“The upper layers of the ocean are heated by solar short-wave (SW) radiation, which penetrates to some considerable depth, depending on wavelength and turbidity (Jerlov 1976, Lee et al 2005). With an average ocean albedo of only 0.09, most of the visible part of the solar spectrum heats the euphotic zone; then wave action and eddy mixing communicates this energy downward, heating the “mixed layer,” conventionally taken as the upper 100 meters. But long-wave (LW) radiation, typically around 10 microns and downwelling from the warm atmosphere as a result of the GH effect, cannot penetrate into water; it is absorbed in the “skin.” From there, much of the LW energy is re-radiated upward and also transmitted to the overlying atmosphere as sensible heat or used up in the evaporation of the “skin,” adding latent heat to the atmospheric boundary layer. Therefore, the LW contribution to heating the bulk ocean may be minor; the SST should not rise appreciably in response to the anthropogenic GH effect.”

The Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation — Atmosphere Ocean, 2022; Lin & Quian

“The AMO is a global-scale coupled ocean-atmosphere oscillation of the climate system with significant sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in all ocean basins.”