Shifting ocean currents are pushing more and more heat into the Southern Hemisphere’s cooler waters

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 03:30:33 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/shifting-ocean-currents-are-pushing-more-and-more-heat-into-the-southern-hemispheres-cooler-waters-189122>

"The oceans absorb more than 90% of all extra heat trapped by the emissions
we’ve produced by burning fossil fuels. This heat is enormous. It’s as if we
exploded an atom bomb underwater, every second of every day.

The ocean isn’t warming at the same rate everywhere. We know the heat is
concentrated in the fast, narrow currents that flow along the east coasts of
the world’s continents and funnel warm water from the tropics down towards the
poles.

In the Southern Hemisphere, these currents – known as the western boundary
currents – are warming faster than the global average at their southern limits,
creating ocean warming hotspots.

Until now, we haven’t known exactly why. These western boundary currents are
particularly important in the Southern Hemisphere, which is more than 80% ocean
compared to just 60% for the Northern Hemisphere.

Our new research has found a vital part of the puzzle: strong easterly winds in
the mid-latitudes are moving south, driving the western boundary currents
further south and leading to faster ocean warming in these areas."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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