Study: Heat content of world’s oceans hit highest record in 2022

A recent research has found that the world’s oceans were the warmest on record in 2022 — the fourth year in a row.

The research, published on Wednesday, was done by an international team of scientists from 16 institutes worldwide.

It found that more than 90 percent of the excess heat accumulated in the climate system is deposited in the world’s oceans

The study, which looked at temperatures from the ocean surface to 2,000 metres deep, examined data from the 1950s and found that ocean warming is getting increasingly fast.

It mentioned that the five hottest years for oceans all happened in the past six years, adding that this is made worse by human activities of pumping heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

“Spatial maps of the 2022 ocean heat content anomaly relative to the mean 1981–2010 conditions reveal most of the ocean areas warming significantly, while some areas (much of the Atlantic and southern oceans) are heating at a faster rate than other ocean basins,” the report reads.

“We find that the oceans are continuing to warm globally, with yet another new 0–2000 m ocean heat content record reached in 2022.

“The inexorable climb in ocean temperatures is the inevitable outcome of Earth’s energy imbalance, primarily associated with increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases.

“The global long-term warming trend is so steady and robust that annual records continue to be set with each new year. The warming has accelerated in recent decades, with a faster rate of warming evident since roughly 1990.”

Michael Mann, one of the authors and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said the oceans will continue to get warmer until the world reaches net zero.

“Better awareness and understanding of the oceans are a basis for the actions to combat climate change,” he added.