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; Michael Zemp

doi:10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023

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 GiglioJohn 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, Michael Zemp

Earth and Climate

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The Earth climate system is out of energy balance, and heat has accumulated continuously over the past decades, warming the ocean, the land, the cryosphere, and the atmosphere. According to the Sixth Assessment Report by Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this planetary warming over multiple decades is human-driven and results in unprecedented and committed changes to the Earth system, with adverse impacts for ecosystems and human systems. The Earth heat inventory provides a measure of the Earth energy imbalance (EEI) and allows for quantifying how much heat has accumulated in the Earth system, as well as where the heat is stored. Here we show that the Earth system has continued to accumulate heat, with 381±61ZJ accumulated from 1971 to 2020. This is equivalent to a heating rate (i.e., the EEI) of 0.48±0.1Wm-2. The majority, about 89%, of this heat is stored in the ocean, followed by about 6% on land, 1% in the atmosphere, and about 4% available for melting the cryosphere. Over the most recent period (2006-2020), the EEI amounts to 0.76±0.2Wm-2. The Earth energy imbalance is the most fundamental global climate indicator that the scientific community and the public can use as the measure of how well the world is doing in the task of bringing anthropogenic climate change under control. Moreover, this indicator is highly complementary to other established ones like global mean surface temperature as it represents a robust measure of the rate of climate change and its future commitment. We call for an implementation of the Earth energy imbalance into the Paris Agreement's Global Stocktake based on best available science. The Earth heat inventory in this study, updated from von Schuckmann et al. (2020), is underpinned by worldwide multidisciplinary collaboration and demonstrates the critical importance of concerted international efforts for climate change monitoring and community-based recommendations and we also call for urgently needed actions for enabling continuity, archiving, rescuing, and calibrating efforts to assure improved and long-term monitoring capacity of the global climate observing system. The data for the Earth heat inventory are publicly available, and more details are provided in Table 4.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1675-1709
Number of pages	35
Journal	Earth System Science Data
Volume	15
Issue number	4
Early online date	17 Apr 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023
Publication status	Published - 2023

Funding

Richard P. Allan is funded by the National Centre for Earth Observation (Research Councils UK) (grant NE/RO16518/1). Felix W. Landerer and Maria Z. Hakuba were supported by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). Maximilian Gorfer was supported by WEGC atmospheric remote sensing and climate system research group young scientist funds. Michael Mayer was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (project P33177). Axel Schweiger was supported by NSF Grant NSF-OPP-1744587 and NASA Grant 80NSSC20K1253. Lijing Cheng was financial supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB42040402) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 42122046, 42076202). Hugo Beltrami was supported by grants from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant (NSERC DG 140576948) and the Canada Research Chairs Program (CRC 230687). Hugo Beltrami holds a Canada Research Chair in Climate Dynamics. Rachel Killick was supported by the Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme funded by BEIS. John Church and Yuehua Li were supported by the Centre for Southern Hemisphere Oceans Research (CSHOR), jointly funded by the Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (QNLM, China) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO, Australia), and the Australian Research Council's Discovery Project funding scheme (project DP190101173) and the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative, Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (Project Number SR200100008). TMcD and PMB gratefully acknowledge Australian Research Council support through grant FL150100090. This paper contributes to the tasks of the Joint SCOR/IAPSO/IAPWS Committee on the Thermophysical Properties of Seawater.

Funders	Funder number
Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science	FL150100090, SR200100008
Canada Research Chairs Program	CRC 230687
Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme
WEGC
National Aeronautics and Space Administration	80NSSC20K1253, 80NM0018D0004
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, UK Government
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada	DG 140576948
Research Councils UK	NE/RO16518/1
Australian Research Council	DP190101173
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
National Natural Science Foundation of China	42122046, 42076202
Chinese Academy of Sciences	XDB42040402
Austrian Science Fund	P33177
Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology
Centre for Southern Hemisphere Oceans Research

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Von Schuckmann, K., Minière, A., Gues, F., Cuesta-Valero, F. J., Kirchengast, G., Adusumilli, S., Straneo, F., Ablain, M., Allan, R. P., Barker, P. M., Beltrami, H., Blazquez, A., Boyer, T., Cheng, L., Church, J., Desbruyeres, D., Dolman, H., Domingues, C. M., García-García, A., ... Zemp, M. (2023). Heat stored in the Earth system 1960-2020: where does the energy go? Earth System Science Data, 15(4), 1675-1709. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023

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title = "Heat stored in the Earth system 1960-2020: where does the energy go?",

abstract = "The Earth climate system is out of energy balance, and heat has accumulated continuously over the past decades, warming the ocean, the land, the cryosphere, and the atmosphere. According to the Sixth Assessment Report by Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this planetary warming over multiple decades is human-driven and results in unprecedented and committed changes to the Earth system, with adverse impacts for ecosystems and human systems. The Earth heat inventory provides a measure of the Earth energy imbalance (EEI) and allows for quantifying how much heat has accumulated in the Earth system, as well as where the heat is stored. Here we show that the Earth system has continued to accumulate heat, with 381±61ZJ accumulated from 1971 to 2020. This is equivalent to a heating rate (i.e., the EEI) of 0.48±0.1Wm-2. The majority, about 89%, of this heat is stored in the ocean, followed by about 6% on land, 1% in the atmosphere, and about 4% available for melting the cryosphere. Over the most recent period (2006-2020), the EEI amounts to 0.76±0.2Wm-2. The Earth energy imbalance is the most fundamental global climate indicator that the scientific community and the public can use as the measure of how well the world is doing in the task of bringing anthropogenic climate change under control. Moreover, this indicator is highly complementary to other established ones like global mean surface temperature as it represents a robust measure of the rate of climate change and its future commitment. We call for an implementation of the Earth energy imbalance into the Paris Agreement's Global Stocktake based on best available science. The Earth heat inventory in this study, updated from von Schuckmann et al. (2020), is underpinned by worldwide multidisciplinary collaboration and demonstrates the critical importance of concerted international efforts for climate change monitoring and community-based recommendations and we also call for urgently needed actions for enabling continuity, archiving, rescuing, and calibrating efforts to assure improved and long-term monitoring capacity of the global climate observing system. The data for the Earth heat inventory are publicly available, and more details are provided in Table 4.",

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

year = "2023",

doi = "10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023",

language = "English",

volume = "15",

pages = "1675--1709",

journal = "Earth System Science Data",

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publisher = "Copernicus Publications",

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Von Schuckmann, K, Minière, A, Gues, F, Cuesta-Valero, FJ, Kirchengast, G, Adusumilli, S, Straneo, F, Ablain, M, Allan, RP, Barker, PM, Beltrami, H, Blazquez, A, Boyer, T, Cheng, L, Church, J, Desbruyeres, D, Dolman, H, Domingues, CM, García-García, A, Giglio, D, Gilson, JE, Gorfer, M, Haimberger, L, Hakuba, MZ, Hendricks, S, Hosoda, S, Johnson, GC, Killick, R, King, B, Kolodziejczyk, N, Korosov, A, Krinner, G, Kuusela, M, Landerer, FW, Langer, M, Lavergne, T, Lawrence, I, Li, Y, Lyman, J, Marti, F, Marzeion, B, Mayer, M, MacDougall, AH, McDougall, T, Monselesan, DP, Nitzbon, J, Otosaka, I, Peng, J, Purkey, S, Roemmich, D, Sato, K, Sato, K, Savita, A, Schweiger, A, Shepherd, A, Seneviratne, SI, Simons, L, Slater, DA, Slater, T, Steiner, AK, Suga, T, Szekely, T, Thiery, W, Timmermans, M-L, Vanderkelen, I, Wjiffels, SE, Wu, T & Zemp, M 2023, 'Heat stored in the Earth system 1960-2020: where does the energy go?', Earth System Science Data, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 1675-1709. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023

TY - JOUR

T1 - Heat stored in the Earth system 1960-2020

T2 - where does the energy go?

AU - Von Schuckmann, Karina

AU - Minière, Audrey

AU - Gues, Flora

AU - Cuesta-Valero, Francisco José

AU - Kirchengast, Gottfried

AU - Adusumilli, Susheel

AU - Straneo, Fiammetta

AU - Ablain, Michaël

AU - Allan, Richard P.

AU - Barker, Paul M.

AU - Beltrami, Hugo

AU - Blazquez, Alejandro

AU - Boyer, Tim

AU - Cheng, Lijing

AU - Church, John

AU - Desbruyeres, Damien

AU - Dolman, Han

AU - Domingues, Catia M.

AU - García-García, Almudena

AU - Giglio, Donata

AU - Gilson, John E.

AU - Gorfer, Maximilian

AU - Haimberger, Leopold

AU - Hakuba, Maria Z.

AU - Hendricks, Stefan

AU - Hosoda, Shigeki

AU - Johnson, Gregory C.

AU - Killick, Rachel

AU - King, Brian

AU - Kolodziejczyk, Nicolas

AU - Korosov, Anton

AU - Krinner, Gerhard

AU - Kuusela, Mikael

AU - Landerer, Felix W.

AU - Langer, Moritz

AU - Lavergne, Thomas

AU - Lawrence, Isobel

AU - Li, Yuehua

AU - Lyman, John

AU - Marti, Florence

AU - Marzeion, Ben

AU - Mayer, Michael

AU - MacDougall, Andrew H.

AU - McDougall, Trevor

AU - Monselesan, Didier Paolo

AU - Nitzbon, Jan

AU - Otosaka, Inès

AU - Peng, Jian

AU - Purkey, Sarah

AU - Roemmich, Dean

AU - Sato, Kanako

AU - Sato, Katsunari

AU - Savita, Abhishek

AU - Schweiger, Axel

AU - Shepherd, Andrew

AU - Seneviratne, Sonia I.

AU - Simons, Leon

AU - Slater, Donald A.

AU - Slater, Thomas

AU - Steiner, Andrea K.

AU - Suga, Toshio

AU - Szekely, Tanguy

AU - Thiery, Wim

AU - Timmermans, Mary-Louise

AU - Vanderkelen, Inne

AU - Wjiffels, Susan E.

AU - Wu, Tonghua

AU - Zemp, Michael

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - The Earth climate system is out of energy balance, and heat has accumulated continuously over the past decades, warming the ocean, the land, the cryosphere, and the atmosphere. According to the Sixth Assessment Report by Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this planetary warming over multiple decades is human-driven and results in unprecedented and committed changes to the Earth system, with adverse impacts for ecosystems and human systems. The Earth heat inventory provides a measure of the Earth energy imbalance (EEI) and allows for quantifying how much heat has accumulated in the Earth system, as well as where the heat is stored. Here we show that the Earth system has continued to accumulate heat, with 381±61ZJ accumulated from 1971 to 2020. This is equivalent to a heating rate (i.e., the EEI) of 0.48±0.1Wm-2. The majority, about 89%, of this heat is stored in the ocean, followed by about 6% on land, 1% in the atmosphere, and about 4% available for melting the cryosphere. Over the most recent period (2006-2020), the EEI amounts to 0.76±0.2Wm-2. The Earth energy imbalance is the most fundamental global climate indicator that the scientific community and the public can use as the measure of how well the world is doing in the task of bringing anthropogenic climate change under control. Moreover, this indicator is highly complementary to other established ones like global mean surface temperature as it represents a robust measure of the rate of climate change and its future commitment. We call for an implementation of the Earth energy imbalance into the Paris Agreement's Global Stocktake based on best available science. The Earth heat inventory in this study, updated from von Schuckmann et al. (2020), is underpinned by worldwide multidisciplinary collaboration and demonstrates the critical importance of concerted international efforts for climate change monitoring and community-based recommendations and we also call for urgently needed actions for enabling continuity, archiving, rescuing, and calibrating efforts to assure improved and long-term monitoring capacity of the global climate observing system. The data for the Earth heat inventory are publicly available, and more details are provided in Table 4.

AB - The Earth climate system is out of energy balance, and heat has accumulated continuously over the past decades, warming the ocean, the land, the cryosphere, and the atmosphere. According to the Sixth Assessment Report by Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this planetary warming over multiple decades is human-driven and results in unprecedented and committed changes to the Earth system, with adverse impacts for ecosystems and human systems. The Earth heat inventory provides a measure of the Earth energy imbalance (EEI) and allows for quantifying how much heat has accumulated in the Earth system, as well as where the heat is stored. Here we show that the Earth system has continued to accumulate heat, with 381±61ZJ accumulated from 1971 to 2020. This is equivalent to a heating rate (i.e., the EEI) of 0.48±0.1Wm-2. The majority, about 89%, of this heat is stored in the ocean, followed by about 6% on land, 1% in the atmosphere, and about 4% available for melting the cryosphere. Over the most recent period (2006-2020), the EEI amounts to 0.76±0.2Wm-2. The Earth energy imbalance is the most fundamental global climate indicator that the scientific community and the public can use as the measure of how well the world is doing in the task of bringing anthropogenic climate change under control. Moreover, this indicator is highly complementary to other established ones like global mean surface temperature as it represents a robust measure of the rate of climate change and its future commitment. We call for an implementation of the Earth energy imbalance into the Paris Agreement's Global Stocktake based on best available science. The Earth heat inventory in this study, updated from von Schuckmann et al. (2020), is underpinned by worldwide multidisciplinary collaboration and demonstrates the critical importance of concerted international efforts for climate change monitoring and community-based recommendations and we also call for urgently needed actions for enabling continuity, archiving, rescuing, and calibrating efforts to assure improved and long-term monitoring capacity of the global climate observing system. The data for the Earth heat inventory are publicly available, and more details are provided in Table 4.

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U2 - 10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023

DO - 10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023

M3 - Article

SN - 1866-3508

VL - 15

SP - 1675

EP - 1709

JO - Earth System Science Data

JF - Earth System Science Data

IS - 4

ER -

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

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