If 2023 becomes the hottest year on record globally, it will be because of the oceans. The much warmer water in the Atlantic Ocean this summer, combined with the periodic warming of the central and eastern Pacific — known as El Niño — have sent ocean temperatures to levels unprecedented in human civilization.
For people living hundreds of miles from the coastline, the oceans may be out of sight and out of mind. But as they cover 70 percent of Earth’s surface, what happens in the oceans is significant.
Rick Spinrad, an oceanographer and current Administrator of NOAA — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — emphasizes some foundational principles that connect oceanography and meteorology.
LINK (via Daily Progress)