Changes of Ocean Heat Content 1955–2009

 

Glok N.I., Malinin V.N.

We discuss the interannual variability of the ocean heat content (OHC) from the mid-20th century to the present, using the data of different authors. An average trend of OHC is 0.22·1022 J/year, which covers 75 % variance of the source time series. A strong oscillation with the period of 23 years was detected using the wavelet analysis throughout the whole time interval under consideration. On the basis of reanalysis and the satellite sea surface temperature the statistical models accurately describing OHC changes, were designed. It is shown that since 2003 there is a certain stabilization in the variability of OHC.

Download original text