The Push to Identify Ocean Heat Waves Before They Happen
As marine heat waves threaten fisheries, coral and food security, researchers are exploring ways to anticipate them up to four months in advance.
Almost half of the world’s oceans are currently experiencing heat waves.
Photographer: Kentaro Takahashi/BloombergThe world’s oceans are simmering. Some 48% of the ocean experienced marine heat waves in August, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, adding to the hottest year for oceans since record-keeping began in 1991. The heat could be felt from the UK, where coastal waters were as much 9F (5C) warmer than usual, to Florida, where the Atlantic pushed into the high 90s F (around 35C).
“The most staggering thing over my career of 30 years as a researcher, is that the things I thought were coming in 50 or 100 years, they're here now,” says Alistair Hobday, a biological oceanographer and a research scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency. “Heat waves are one of those. And I think of heat waves as if they’re an alarm bell. Surely people listen to an alarm.”