Ocean warming in 2024 has resulted in new record high temperatures. The ocean is the hottest it has ever been recorded by humans, not only at the surface temperature, but also for the upper 2000 metres. This follows from a new study.
The study, co-authored by Dr. Karina von Schuckmann, senior advisor in Ocean Science for Policy at the Scientific Direction of Mercator Ocean International, France, was published on 10 January in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. It was led by Prof. Dr. Lijing Cheng from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
A team of 54 scientists from seven countries was involved in the study, which examines how a warmer ocean impacts our lives on land and what it signifies for our future.
‘The ocean serves as our planet’s sentinel for global warming, functioning as the primary reservoir for excess heat accumulating in Earth’s climate system due to human-induced emissions,’ says Von Schuckmann, who warns that without decisive action to mitigate climate change and urgent adaptation measures, we face escalating disruptions, unprecedented environmental shifts, and increasing economic and human costs.
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New records
According to the study, heating in the ocean has continued in 2024 in response to increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, despite the transition from an El Niño to neutral conditions. This means that the global sea surface temperature is a new record for the instrumentation era, and the ocean heat content of global upper 2000 metres is the highest ever recorded by modern instruments, particularly in the Indian Ocean, Tropical Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Southern Ocean.
These record-high values of 2024 sea surface temperatures and ocean heat content continue to indicate unabated trends of global heating. Over the past twelve months, 138 countries have recorded their hottest temperatures ever. Droughts, heat waves, floods, and wildfires have impacted Africa, Southern Asia, the Philippines, Brazil, Europe, the USA, Chile, and the Great Barrier Reef, as a few examples.
Picture: Ocean warming patterns for 2024 (by Cheng, L., von Schuckmann, K., et al. (2025). Advances in Atmospheric Sciences).
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