Leon Simons (looking up) Profile picture
Mar 8, 2023 17 tweets 6 min read Read on X
For decades this area has been kept relatively cool by sulfur emissions from ships.

But this changed in 2020. Image
On January 1st 2020 new shipping regulation came into effect (#IMO2020), decreasing the maximum amount of sulfur in shipping fuels from 3.5% to 0.5%.

From 2020 we see a rapid increase in the amount of solar radiation that's being absorbed by the region highlighted above. Image
If this trend continues that could mean that the Northern Hemisphere mid latitudes (where many of us live) will warm much more rapidly.

It could also impact global and regional weather systems, like the monsoons.

More extreme weather is likely. Image
See my earlier thread for more details:

Oceans are already warming more rapidly:

Sea Surface Temperatures have spiked for the Northern Hemisphere Mid Latitudes.

In 2022 these were 1°C above the 1979-2000 average.

It takes a lot of heat to warm the oceans. Image
This all coincidences with a record rate of global warming.

I wrote more about that here:

Air pollution has also been hiding the precipitation increase of global warming:

"When GHG and aerosol forcings are combined ... the global mean precipitation increase due to GHG warming has, until recently, been completely masked by aerosol drying."

science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…Image
Image
Global warming is mainly ocean warming.

This is part of the reasons why the 80% reduction in sulfur emissions from shipping significantly increases global warming.

The peak global cooling/dimming effect from shipping is uncertain, but in scale potentially equal to the warming effect of ~20 years of current GHG emissions:

Global sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions from international shipping since 1850: Image
More on regional aerosol changes here.
With many (peer reviewed) sources at the end.

We covered all this in detail in our Global warming in the pipeline paper and in the press conference thereof.

I recommend downloading in the PDF if you'd like to skip all the complicated physics:

academic.oup.com/oocc/article/3…

x.com/LeonSimons8/st…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Leon Simons (looking up)

Leon Simons (looking up) Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @LeonSimons8

Jan 27
Fossil fuels contain sulphur, which is released when burned. Scientists have known about the cooling effect of sulphur for decades.

This partially hides greenhouse gas warming.

But the scale of cooling and the decoupling of CO₂ and SO₂ emissions has been underestimated Image
As more and more clean air regulations came into effect from the 1960s onward, CO₂ and sulphur dioxide (SO₂) emissions gradually decoupled.

SO₂ emissions reached a global peak around 1980:
academic.oup.com/bioscience/art…Image
@WilliamJRipple This scatter plot clearly shows the decoupling between CO₂ and SO₂: Image
Read 14 tweets
Dec 29, 2024
🌊🌡️📈
The North Atlantic Ocean is not cooling back down.

The baseline has shifted.

We'll discuss this and more later today on Climate Chat. Image
2024 even broke the extreme Sea Surface Temperature record of 2023: Image
Unprecedented: Image
Read 8 tweets
Dec 16, 2024
The Atlantic Ocean used to transport about 500,000,000 Hiroshima bombs worth of heat northward.

This will decrease by ~30% in OUR lifetimes.

What does that mean?

I think the main problem with climate change is that our tiny brains are incapable of comprehending it.
I tried to cover the basic AMOC maths here:

patreon.com/posts/10867891…
Read 4 tweets
Nov 22, 2024
🌊🌡📈 = 🦠📉

Plankton may not survive global warming, with "devastating effects"

🚨Plankton is at the basis of the ocean food web!
🚨Plankton sequesters carbon & releases oxygen!
🚨Plankton keeps the planet cool by creating cloud condensation nuclei! Image
Image
Image
Image
This is one of the most worrying studies I've seen in a long time.

And I come across a lot of worrying studies.
oceanographicmagazine.com/news/plankton-…
The ocean are warming extremely fast Image
Image
Read 7 tweets
Nov 15, 2024
🌍🌡📈
How close is +1.5 °C ?!

7 years away?
2.5 years away? 👇
4 months ago??

It very much depends on how you look at the data.
🧵 1/Image
The average of the past 17 months was +1.60 °C above the 1850-1900 preindustrial baseline in the @CopernicusECMWF ERA5 dataset.

October was +1.65°C and November will likely be about the same.

While El Niño ended in May. Image
This doesn't necessarily mean we've already passed the red 1.5 line of the Paris agreement, which is about long-term warming.

But maybe we did!

Using a linear extrapolation from the past 5 years puts us at +1.52°C.

And +1.5°C on July 2024! Image
Read 15 tweets
Nov 11, 2024
BREAKING 🌊🌡️📈

"All datasets agree that ocean warming RATES show a particularly strong increase in the past
two decades."

@WMO State of the Global Climate 2023 Report.

About 90% of the energy that has accumulated in the Earth system is stored in the oceans!Image
@WMO @MercatorOcean This was highlighted today by @WMO's Secretary General State of Climate 2024 update

@borenbears asked the crucial question about 1.5 °C.

All these methods shown in their Fig 2 underestimate the rate of warming:

unfccc.int/event/wmo-stat…Image
@WMO @MercatorOcean @borenbears Alternative 3 is based on @piersforster et al. (2024).

Their estimates of the 2023 aerosol forcing was the strongest in 8 years. Leading to a lower net forcing increase and thus less future warming.

Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(