Indian and Pacific oceans hiding global warming: NASA

Washington: A layer of the Indian and Pacific oceans, between 100-300 metres below the surface, has been accumulating more heat than previously recognised, thus temporarily hiding global warming, NASA has reported. The study of ocean temperature measurements shows that in recent years, extra heat from greenhouse gases has been trapped in the waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans.

According to researchers, this shifting pattern of ocean heat accounts for the slowdown in the global surface temperature trend observed during the past decade. Researchers Veronica Nieves, Willis and Bill Patzert analysed direct ocean temperature measurements, including observations from a global network of about 3,500 ocean temperature probes known as the Argo array.

These measurements show temperatures below the surface have been increasing. The Pacific Ocean is the primary source of the subsurface warm water found in the study, though some of that water now has been pushed to the Indian Ocean. “The western Pacific got so warm that some of the warm water is leaking into the Indian Ocean through the Indonesian archipelago. In the long term, there is robust evidence of unabated global warming,” Nieves noted.