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University of St. Thomas scientist John Abraham

 is part of a team of scientists that finds the Earth’s oceans were the warmest on record in 2019. 

 was published this week in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. The team includes top climate scientists in this area of study including some names you may recognize like 

Kevin Trenberth from the National Center for Atmospheric Research

The scientists used two separate metrics to assess ocean heat content (OHC) in the Earth’s oceans. The data shows that the Earth’s oceans were the warmest on record in 2019 going back to at least 1950. And the past five- and 10-year periods are also the warmest on record.

In other words, the trend of ocean warming is strong and unambiguous. 

Abraham sent me a summary of the paper that includes a pretty sobering measure of how much energy is going into the Earth’s oceans. The amount of heat accumulating in Earth’s oceans is equivalent to five to six Hiroshima atom bombs of energy per second, 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Oceans are an excellent thermal sink for the Earth’s climate system. Climate scientists know that oceans are absorbing more than 90 percent of Earth’s warming effect due to greenhouse gas-induced climate change. 

That’s helped limit the atmospheric warming to around 1 degree Celsius so far. But the ability of Earth’s oceans to temper the atmospheric heat rise will eventually decrease.

And we know the interaction between warmer oceans and the atmosphere drives stronger and wetter storms like Hurricane Harvey. 

We’ve seen an unprecedented rapid intensification of hurricanes in the past decade over Earth’s hotter, supercharged oceans. And warmer and more acidic oceans are bleaching and killing 

 worldwide. These reefs are critical habitats and food sources for Earth’s marine life and food chain.

This study of Earth’s warming oceans provides a more complete assessment of how the human-generated increase in greenhouse gases is impacting the planet’s overall climate system.

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Paul Huttner

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University of St. Thomas scientist John Abraham is part of a team that assessed the Earth’s oceans in 2019.

Twin Cities scientist: 'Heat of 5 to 6 Hiroshima atom bombs per second' into Earth's oceans

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