The latest data seem to show a very considerable slowdown in ocean warming, starting a few years after the slowdown in atmospheric warming.
That raises an obvious puzzle. As I understand the situation—readers are welcome to correct me if I am wrong—there are satellite measurements of incoming and outgoing radiant energy, and they show a substantial net inflow. If atmosphere, surface, and ocean are all warming much more slowly than they were twenty years ago, where is that energy going?
The two obvious alternatives are that we are missing something, that warming is happening somewhere we cannot readily measure it such as the deep ocean, or that there is something wrong with the measurements that show a net inflow. I do not know enough to offer an educated guess as to which is the case and no other alternatives occur to me.
That raises an obvious puzzle. As I understand the situation—readers are welcome to correct me if I am wrong—there are satellite measurements of incoming and outgoing radiant energy, and they show a substantial net inflow. If atmosphere, surface, and ocean are all warming much more slowly than they were twenty years ago, where is that energy going?
The two obvious alternatives are that we are missing something, that warming is happening somewhere we cannot readily measure it such as the deep ocean, or that there is something wrong with the measurements that show a net inflow. I do not know enough to offer an educated guess as to which is the case and no other alternatives occur to me.
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