Global Oceans

El Niño ebbed in early 2024, reaching neutral status in May and crossing the threshold into La Niña conditions in December. The global average annual sea surface temperature was 0.06°C above the previous record set in 2023. Marine heatwaves in 2024 were, as in 2023, more widespread, long-lived, and severe than in previous years. From 2023 to 2024, ocean heat content from 0 dbar to 2000 dbar increased at a rate equivalent to ~1.5 W m−2 of heat applied over the ocean surface, and global sea level increased by 4.6 (±1.4) mm, both reaching record-high levels in 2024. Maps of air–sea flux data estimate that the oceans absorbed carbon at a rate of ~2.7 Pg C yr−1 in 2024, which was below the 2014–23 average of ~3.7 Pg C yr−1. In the Pacific Ocean, given the shift from a strong El Niño to weak La Niña conditions, surface currents across the equatorial Pacific in 2024 were strongly anomalously westward, and sea surface temperatures, sea surface salinities, 0 m–2000 m ocean heat content, and sea level all decreased sharply in the eastern equatorial Pacific from 2023 to 2024. Fluxes of carbon dioxide from ocean to atmosphere were anomalously lower than average during 2024 off Peru and out to about 140°W, likely owing to the El Niño in the first few months of the year. As in 2023, chlorophyll-a anomalies in 2024 were low in a wedge in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, but high just outside that wedge. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation has been in a negative phase since 2020, with sea surface temperature, ocean heat content, and sea surface height values in the center of the North Pacific basin all higher than average, along with relatively lower values around the edges in 2024. A persistent 2020–24 poleward shift in the Kuroshio extension also continued to be evident east of Japan in both ocean heat content and zonal surface current anomalies. In the Indian Ocean, sea surface temperature, ocean heat content, and sea level were all above average in 2024 across much of the basin, except for a large patch of below-average ocean heat content along 20°S–30°S. Surface currents near the equator were anomalously eastward. Surface salinities were primarily strongly anomalously fresh north of about 12°S in 2024, consistent with anomalously high freshwater input (precipitation minus evaporation) from the atmosphere to the ocean in the region. Chlorophyll-a anomalies were quite negative offshore of Somalia and Oman, as well as northeast of Madagascar, but generally positive in the rest of the basin. There was also a prominent ridge of high sea level and ocean heat content extending eastward from Africa just north of Madagascar, which was associated with anomalous westward surface currents on its northern flank. In the Atlantic, sea surface temperature, ocean heat content, and sea level were all well above average across much of the basin in 2024, with some below-average values of ocean heat content in a patch extending from east of Cape Cod to about 55°N, 25°W. A band of anomalously eastward surface current and above-average ocean heat content directly north of a band of anomalously westward surface current along the Gulf Stream extension west of 70°W is consistent with an anomalous northward shift of the axis of this current in 2024. Sea surface salinity was anomalously high in much of the basin but anomalously low around the Intertropical Convergence Zone and in the Labrador Sea. Updates of time series of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation at two latitudes revealed little evidence of a trend over the past few decades.

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Publication Details

Journal
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Published
2025-08-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1175/bams-d-25-0074.1
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.30
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article

Global Oceans

Renellys C. Perez, Duo Chan, Robert A. Weller, Brendan Rae Carter et al.
1 citations
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
1.30
article

Global Oceans

Renellys C. Perez, Duo Chan, Robert A. Weller, Brendan Rae Carter, Rachel Killick, William E. Sweet, B. D. Beckley, Xungang Yin, Mikael Kuusela, Richard A. Feely, Zeng‐Zhen Hu, R. S. Nerem, Ricardo Locarnini, P. R. Thompson, D. P. Chambers, Gary T. Mitchum, Franz Philip Tuchen, Ryan H. Smith, Ben Moat, Claudia Schmid, Rick Lumpkin, Benjamin D. Hamlington, M. A. Merrifield, Matthieu Le Hénaff, Lisan Yu, David Smeed, Matthew J. Widlansky, Svetlana Jevrejeva, Donata Giglio, J. K. Willis, Garrett Graham, Rik Wanninkhof, Felix W. Landerer, William E. Johns, Mitsuho Oe, Shenfu Dong, James Reagan, Joaquín Triñanes, Huai-Min Zhang, Will Hobbs, Sabrina Speich, Bryan A. Franz, Alexey Mishonov, Paul W. Stackhouse, Toby K. Westberry, Denis L. Volkov, Tarron Lamont, Lijing Cheng, Boyin Huang, John M. Lyman, E. W. Leuliette, Ivona Cetinić, Annika Jersild, Peter Landschützer, Thea Sukianto, Meng Gao, Jay Garg, Gregory C. Johnson, Ashley Bellas-Manley, Robert W. Schlegal
article en
1 citations

Abstract

El Niño ebbed in early 2024, reaching neutral status in May and crossing the threshold into La Niña conditions in December. The global average annual sea surface temperature was 0.06°C above the previous record set in 2023. Marine heatwaves in 2024 were, as in 2023, more widespread, long-lived, and severe than in previous years. From 2023 to 2024, ocean heat content from 0 dbar to 2000 dbar increased at a rate equivalent to ~1.5 W m−2 of heat applied over the ocean surface, and global sea level increased by 4.6 (±1.4) mm, both reaching record-high levels in 2024. Maps of air–sea flux data estimate that the oceans absorbed carbon at a rate of ~2.7 Pg C yr−1 in 2024, which was below the 2014–23 average of ~3.7 Pg C yr−1. In the Pacific Ocean, given the shift from a strong El Niño to weak La Niña conditions, surface currents across the equatorial Pacific in 2024 were strongly anomalously westward, and sea surface temperatures, sea surface salinities, 0 m–2000 m ocean heat content, and sea level all decreased sharply in the eastern equatorial Pacific from 2023 to 2024. Fluxes of carbon dioxide from ocean to atmosphere were anomalously lower than average during 2024 off Peru and out to about 140°W, likely owing to the El Niño in the first few months of the year. As in 2023, chlorophyll-a anomalies in 2024 were low in a wedge in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, but high just outside that wedge. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation has been in a negative phase since 2020, with sea surface temperature, ocean heat content, and sea surface height values in the center of the North Pacific basin all higher than average, along with relatively lower values around the edges in 2024. A persistent 2020–24 poleward shift in the Kuroshio extension also continued to be evident east of Japan in both ocean heat content and zonal surface current anomalies. In the Indian Ocean, sea surface temperature, ocean heat content, and sea level were all above average in 2024 across much of the basin, except for a large patch of below-average ocean heat content along 20°S–30°S. Surface currents near the equator were anomalously eastward. Surface salinities were primarily strongly anomalously fresh north of about 12°S in 2024, consistent with anomalously high freshwater input (precipitation minus evaporation) from the atmosphere to the ocean in the region. Chlorophyll-a anomalies were quite negative offshore of Somalia and Oman, as well as northeast of Madagascar, but generally positive in the rest of the basin. There was also a prominent ridge of high sea level and ocean heat content extending eastward from Africa just north of Madagascar, which was associated with anomalous westward surface currents on its northern flank. In the Atlantic, sea surface temperature, ocean heat content, and sea level were all well above average across much of the basin in 2024, with some below-average values of ocean heat content in a patch extending from east of Cape Cod to about 55°N, 25°W. A band of anomalously eastward surface current and above-average ocean heat content directly north of a band of anomalously westward surface current along the Gulf Stream extension west of 70°W is consistent with an anomalous northward shift of the axis of this current in 2024. Sea surface salinity was anomalously high in much of the basin but anomalously low around the Intertropical Convergence Zone and in the Labrador Sea. Updates of time series of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation at two latitudes revealed little evidence of a trend over the past few decades.

Bulletin of the American Meteorological SocietyVol. 106(8)
Met Office (GB), Flanders Marine Institute (BE), University of Tasmania (AU), Goddard Space Flight Center (US), Oregon State University (US), Langley Research Center (US), Universities Space Research Association (US), Australian Antarctic Division (AU), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US), North Carolina State University (US), University of Miami (US), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (US), University of Colorado Boulder (US), National Oceanography Centre (GB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (ES), University of Washington (US), NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (US), Japan Meteorological Agency (JP), NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratories (US), École Normale Supérieure - PSL (FR), Sorbonne Université (FR), Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (FR), NOAA National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (US), NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (US), Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (FR), NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research (US), Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (US), Science Systems and Applications (United States) (US), Institute of Atmospheric Physics (CN), NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (US), Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche (FR), Adnet Systems (United States) (US), University of Southampton (GB), NOAA Climate Prediction Center, NOAA Center for Operational Oceanographic Products & Services, University of Maryland, College Park (US), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (US), Carnegie Mellon University (US), University of South Florida St. Petersburg (US), Old Dominion University (US), University of North Carolina at Asheville (US), College of Marin (US)
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