Sunday, October 27, 2024

Ocean warmth a puzzle of residual heat

 I think one thing I have gotten wrong is the half-time of residual heat in the oceans.  That means, it is taking a heck of a longer time cooling off.


This may account for the 'drift' of the N. Hemi, as opposed to the south.  In the sea surface temperature anomaly plot, the extra warmth has been going for some time.  It is slowly decreasing, though.


This chart shows how the little section about Iceland is cooling.  This section is critical for the UK winter temperatures.  Note how the majority of the Gulf Stream is now hitting below Spain.  I haven't seen it this low before, so that's a new thing.


A huge Arctic current is developing, which will go down the side of Greenland.  A warm streamer was going way up north, but has curved below Svalbard and has abandoned our little section.  We should see this all freeze up soon.  The Gulf Steam has served as a switching gate up here for a long time.  If there is lots of warm water, the Arctic spills will not go down this potential spillway.  If the gate is open, the cold cows all wander out.


 

You can see here that Antarctica is the only zone without a huge drift.  It has stayed in a narrow band.


However, the Arctic has a big drift.  I have to go with the idea that all this drift will go away eventually, but I don't know when.  

ps. welcome to a new family-member reader!  

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