The temperature anomaly in the northern Atlantic (2023)

At present, you quite often get information about very high sea surface temperatures in the northern Atlantic (see below).

The nice thing with the term anomaly is, that in a good case that are somehow exceptional measurements due to exceptional phenomena and coincidences and actually, you can forget them and put such records into the trash.

But of course, these high-temperature values on the sea surface of the northern Atlantic could also be a sign of significant temperature pattern change. Definitely, it is still too early to judge about this finally but the AI YouTube selection process forwarded to me a video that analyses several scientific reports (e.g.: https://phys.org/news/2023-06-climate-linkage-arctic-subarctic-oceans.html) that see such significant geographic pattern change between Arctica and sub Arctica ocean explaining these high temperatures in northern Atlantic.

Here is the link to the YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/8erFXZmp7fo

and since the information is not so easy to grasp, I let ChatGPT do a summary for the transcript of the video:

This transcript provides a detailed explanation of why we’re seeing anomalous sea temperatures in the North Atlantic. The key reasons discussed in this video are:

1. Changes in Arctic and Subarctic Ocean Circulation: The Arctic Ocean is surrounded by the land masses of Asia, Europe, and North America and is connected to Subarctic seas through a few narrow straits. Movements through these straits carry solid and liquid water mass, heat, salt, and nutrients, linking the Arctic with the rest of the globe and affecting climate and marine ecosystems. The study described in the video reveals radical changes in the inflows and outflows of the Arctic Ocean in the 2010s compared to earlier periods, profoundly impacting the overall balance of the globally interconnected ocean circulation system.
2. Pacific and Atlantic Inflows: On the Pacific side, water enters the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait, providing freshwater and heat during the warmer seasons, and carrying large amounts of nutrients essential for marine ecosystems. The Arctic Ocean also receives warm, salty water plus nutrients and plankton via the southern Barents Sea Opening, the Eastern Fram Strait, and the Norwegian Sea. The temperatures of the Pacific inflow in the Bering Strait and the Atlantic inflow in the Fram Strait have reached record highs, leading to the warming of Subarctic waters. The Barents Sea has been blending with the warmer Atlantic waters, resulting in an increased heat convergence from lower latitudes.
3. Climate Change and Increased Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The warming of the Subarctic and Arctic waters is attributed to the increase in the so-called radiative forcing in our atmosphere, the extra warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has noted an increase in radiative forcing from 1.8 watts per square meter in 1979 to 3.4 watts per square meter in 2022. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects a further increase to 8.5 watts per square meter by the end of the century under the worst-case scenario.
4. Impact on Ecosystems and Climate: The warming waters are altering the distribution and abundance of various wildlife species, disrupting the timing and success rates of primary productivity (the basis of the marine food chain), and causing shifts in migratory patterns of many species. Warmer Arctic waters are fundamentally changing atmospheric circulation patterns like the jet stream, contributing to record-breaking heatwaves, droughts, floods, and freezes globally.
5. Permafrost Thawing and Methane Release: The extra Arctic heat is rapidly thawing permafrost, releasing large amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere, which could accelerate global warming.

In summary, the high sea temperatures in the North Atlantic are due to the increasing global temperatures caused by climate change, as well as changes in ocean currents and the mixing of different bodies of water. The consequences of these changes are far-reaching, affecting ecosystems, climate patterns, and potentially accelerating the rate of global warming.