Heat stored in the Earth system 1960–2020: where does the energy go?

von Schuckmann, Karina; Minière, Audrey; Gues, Flora; Cuesta-Valero, Francisco José; Kirchengast, Gottfried; Adusumilli, Susheel; Straneo, Fiammetta; Ablain, Michaël; Allan, Richard P.; Barker, Paul M.; Beltrami, Hugo; Blazquez, Alejandro; Boyer, Tim; Cheng, Lijing; Church, John; Desbruyeres, Damien; Dolman, Han; Domingues, Catia M.; García-García, Almudena; Giglio, Donata; Gilson, John E.; Gorfer, Maximilian; Haimberger, Leopold; Hakuba, Maria Z.; Hendricks, Stefan; Hosoda, Shigeki; Johnson, Gregory C.; Killick, Rachel; King, Brian; Kolodziejczyk, Nicolas; Korosov, Anton; Krinner, Gerhard; Kuusela, Mikael; Landerer, Felix W.; Langer, Moritz; Lavergne, Thomas; Lawrence, Isobel; Li, Yuehua; Lyman, John; Marti, Florence; Marzeion, Ben; Mayer, Michael; MacDougall, Andrew H.; McDougall, Trevor; Monselesan, Didier Paolo; Nitzbon, Jan; Otosaka, Inès; Peng, Jian; Purkey, Sarah; Roemmich, Dean; Sato, Kanako; Sato, Katsunari; Savita, Abhishek; Schweiger, Axel; Shepherd, Andrew; Seneviratne, Sonia I.; Simons, Leon; Slater, Donald A.; Slater, Thomas; Steiner, Andrea K.; Suga, Toshio; Szekely, Tanguy; Thiery, Wim; Timmermans, Mary-Louise; Vanderkelen, Inne; Wjiffels, Susan E.; Wu, Tonghua; Zemp, Michael

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023

Articles | Volume 15, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 4

Data description paper

|

17 Apr 2023

Data description paper |

| 17 Apr 2023

Heat stored in the Earth system 1960–2020: where does the energy go?

Karina von Schuckmann, Audrey Minière, Flora Gues, Francisco José Cuesta-Valero, Gottfried Kirchengast, Susheel Adusumilli, Fiammetta Straneo, Michaël Ablain, Richard P. Allan, Paul M. Barker, Hugo Beltrami, Alejandro Blazquez, Tim Boyer, Lijing Cheng, John Church, Damien Desbruyeres, Han Dolman, Catia M. Domingues, Almudena García-García, Donata Giglio, John E. Gilson, Maximilian Gorfer, Leopold Haimberger, Maria Z. Hakuba, Stefan Hendricks, Shigeki Hosoda, Gregory C. Johnson, Rachel Killick, Brian King, Nicolas Kolodziejczyk, Anton Korosov, Gerhard Krinner, Mikael Kuusela, Felix W. Landerer, Moritz Langer, Thomas Lavergne, Isobel Lawrence, Yuehua Li, John Lyman, Florence Marti, Ben Marzeion, Michael Mayer, Andrew H. MacDougall, Trevor McDougall, Didier Paolo Monselesan, Jan Nitzbon, Inès Otosaka, Jian Peng, Sarah Purkey, Dean Roemmich, Kanako Sato, Katsunari Sato, Abhishek Savita, Axel Schweiger, Andrew Shepherd, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Leon Simons, Donald A. Slater, Thomas Slater, Andrea K. Steiner, Toshio Suga, Tanguy Szekely, Wim Thiery, Mary-Louise Timmermans, Inne Vanderkelen, Susan E. Wjiffels, Tonghua Wu, and Michael Zemp

Data sets

GCOS EHI 1960--2020 Earth Heat Inventory Ocean Heat Content (Version 2) Karina von Schuckmann, Audrey Minière, Flora Gues, Francisco José Cuesta-Valero, Gottfried Kirchengast, Susheel Adusumilli, Fiammetta Straneo, Richard Allan, Paul M. Barker, Hugo Beltrami, Tim Boyer, Lijing Cheng,JohnChurch, Damien Desbruyeres, Han Dolman, Catia M. Domingues, Almudena García-García, John Gilson, Maximilian Gorfer, Leopold Haimberger, Stefan Hendricks, Shigeki Hosoda, Gregory C. Johnson, Rachel Killick, Brian A. King, Nicolas Kolodziejczyk, Anton Korosov, Gerhard Krinner, Mikael Kuusela, Moritz Langer, Thomas Lavergne, Isobel Lawrence, Yuehua Li, John Lyman, Ben Marzeion, Michael Mayer, Andrew MacDougall, Trevor McDougall, Didier Paolo Monselesan, Jean Nitzbon, Inès Otosaka, Jian Peng, Sarah Purkey, Dean Roemmich, Kanako Sato, Katsunari Sato, Abhishek Savita, Axel Schweiger, Andrew Shepherd, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Donald A. Slater, Thomas Slater, Leon Simons, Andrea K. Steiner, Tanguy Szekely, Toshio Suga, Wim Thiery, Mary-Louise Timmermanns, Inne Vanderkelen, Susan E. Wijffels, Tonghua Wu, and Michael Zemp https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/GCOS_EHI_1960-2020_OHC_v2

GCOS EHI 1960-2020 Continental Heat Content (Version 2) Francisco José Cuesta-Valero, Hugo Beltrami, Almudena García-García, Gerhard Krinner, Moritz Langer, Andrew MacDougall, Jean Nitzbon, Jian Peng, Karina von Schuckmann, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Wim Thiery, Inne Vanderkelen, and Tonghua Wu https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/GCOS_EHI_1960-2020_CoHC_v2

GCOS EHI 1960-2020 Atmospheric Heat Content Gottfried Kirchengast, Maximilian Gorfer, Michael Mayer, Andrea Steiner, K. and Leopold Haimberger https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/GCOS_EHI_1960-2020_AHC

GCOS EHI 1960-2020 Inland Water Heat Content Inne Vanderkelen and Wim Thiery https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/GCOS_EHI_1960-2020_IWHC

GCOS EHI 1960-2020 Permafrost Heat Content Jean Nitzbon, Gerhard Krinner, and Moritz Langer https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/GCOS_EHI_1960-2020_PHC

GCOS EHI 1960-2020 Cryosphere Heat Content Susheel Adusumilli, Fiammetta Straneo, Stefan Hendricks, Anton Korosov, Thomas Lavergne, Isobel Lawrence, Ben Marzeion, Inès Otosaka, Axel Schweiger, Andrew Shepherd, Donald A. Slater, Thomas Slater, Mary-Louise Timmermanns, and Michael Zemp https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/GCOS_EHI_1960-2020_CrHC

Short summary

Earth's climate is out of energy balance, and this study quantifies how much heat has consequently accumulated over the past decades (ocean: 89 %, land: 6 %, cryosphere: 4 %, atmosphere: 1 %). Since 1971, this accumulated heat reached record values at an increasing pace. The Earth heat inventory provides a comprehensive view on the status and expectation of global warming, and we call for an implementation of this global climate indicator into the Paris Agreement’s Global Stocktake.