Leon Simons (is fine) Profile picture
Sep 3, 2023 7 tweets 3 min read Read on X
The most important graph in the world has been updated to include the last 150,000 years!

📄 Benthic δ¹⁸O records Earth’s energy imbalance

Great work by Sarah Shackleton, Alan Seltzer, Daniel Bagenstos and Lorraine Lisiecki (2023) in @NatureGeosci

1/
nature.com/articles/s4156…
This shows the Earth's Energy Imbalance from a new perspective.

We have changed the rate at which heat accumulates on our planet beyond anything ever before.

We are finding out what this means together.

And we better pay attention.

Rapid changes come with great risks!

2/2 Image
The paper has a very insightful "agnostic" approach to Earth's Energy Imbalance of the past, by looking at differences in oxygen isotopes from a sea level (water turning to ice and vice versa) and global ocean temperature perspective.

It doesn't seem to matter very much what the heat was directed towards, if you mainly care about the absolute Earth Energy Imbalance numbers.

More in this infographic and description:

Agnostic reconstruction of Earth’s energy imbalance (EEI) from δ18Obenth. Here we outline the steps taken to calculate EEI from δ18Obenth (left to right), which are described in detail in the methods. Briefly, δ18Obenth21 (left) is converted into sea level (second panel, top in yellow) and ocean temperature (second panel, bottom in green) using the assumption that the δ18Obenth signal is entirely attributed to one or the other. We then calculate the energy change associated with ice sheet buildup/melting from the sea level reconstruction (third panel, yellow) and with ocean warming/cooling from the ocean temperature reconstruction (third panel, green). EEI is then calculated by taking the time derivative of the energy changes and averaging over Earth’s surface area (panel 4). The gray lines in panels 3 and 4 show the calculated the global energy change (ΔEglobal) and EEI if we assume a constant 60/40 split of δ18Obenth between ice volume and ocean temperature changes.

The 150,000 year Earth's Energy Imbalance figure (c) from the paper: Image
Data can be accessed here:

zenodo.org/record/8237374
@MartinWermuth @WeatherProf ceres-tool.larc.nasa.gov/ord-tool/jsp/E…
Here I've added the +0.5 W/m² average Earth's Energy Imbalance from 1971-2020 from von Schuckmann et al. (2023)

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More from @LeonSimons8

Nov 11
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
Oct 20
"the probability of an AMOC collapse before the year 2050 is estimated to be 59%"

Looking and Atlantic heat transport reanalysis, relative sea ice anomalies, and model studies (including the effects of aerosols), I'm afraid the collapse of the AMOC might already be ongoing..
Sea ice (2024 will be similar to 2023 for both Hemispheres):
Image
Image
Read 10 tweets
Oct 15
What the f*ck!

This is the most recent 12-month average Atlantic Ocean's Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly: Image
This is not just about a single month or small region of the globe.

Our whole f*cking planet is in peril and most people are completely ignorant about it.

Often wilfully.
What ever happened to the "lack of Sahara dust" theory?

Read 5 tweets
Oct 14
"The sudden collapse of carbon sinks was not factored into climate models – and could rapidly accelerate global heating"Image
“We shouldn’t rely on natural forests to do the job. We really, really have to tackle the big issue: fossil fuel emissions across all sectors,” says Prof @PFriedling

“We can’t just assume that we have forests and the forest will remove some CO2 ..."
theguardian.com/environment/20…
@PFriedling I wonder what decreasing land sinks would mean for estimates of decreasing CO₂ concentrations and forcings in different scenarios.

E.g.:
Read 4 tweets
Oct 7
Hurricane Milton has rapidly intensified to Category 5.

From Cat 1 in only 11 hours.

Gaining power at a rate of about 500 TW (terrawatt = 500,000,000,000,000 joules per second)!

This is equal to scale of Earth's Energy Imbalance, the rate at which our planet is warming.
Compare that to to the Earth's Energy Imbalance of +1.4 W/m² for the last 4 years:
Read 6 tweets
Oct 3
Many are under the impression that we have not yet reached the double CO₂-equivalent Greenhouse Gas level.

We definitely have, using the @IPCC_CH's based estimates.

Don't ask me why nobody mentions this..

Total Greenhouse gas forcing:
4 W/m² = ~560 ppm CO2-eq = 2 x CO2Image
@IPCC_CH Every climate scientist worth their salt knows and understands this.

Forcings are what cause the climate to change.

It's the first thing you (should) learn about when you study climate change. Image
"We conclude that the GHG increase since 1750 already produces a climate forcing equivalent to that of 2 × CO2"

Global warming in the pipeline
@DrJamesEHansen et al. (2023)
academic.oup.com/oocc/article/3…Image
Read 4 tweets

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