A combination of human-induced climate change and natural climate variability can explain an anomaly in ocean temperatures that has puzzled scientists in recent years, according to new Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS)-led research.
Previous studies have shown that between 2005 and 2015, 90 percent of global ocean heat gain was confined to the Southern Hemisphere, and there was little change in Northern Hemisphere oceans.
This asymmetry contributed to a global warming hiatus from 2001 to 2012, and a range of theories have been put forward to explain it, from blaming atmospheric aerosols to the claim that the phenomenon contradicts climate change.
A new study published in the journal Nature Communications has found that the contrast in the ocean warming between the two hemispheres is the result of natural variability of the climate system, and the net warming of the global ocean is entirely consistent with anthropogenic climate change.
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