Scientists warn oceans are starting to 'memory loss'

The Earth's climate changes, the world's oceans also have unusual changes, not only in temperature but also in structure, flow and color. Scientists call it the ocean phenomenon "amnesia".

In an article in the scientific journal Science Advances, climate researcher Hui Shi from the Farallon Institute in Petaluma, California (USA) explains: "Unlike weather, which can change violently and rapidly, Rapidly on a daily basis, Earth's oceans usually show only small changes throughout the week. This persistence is known as oceanic "memory" or "memory". 

Oceanic memory is the source of our ability to predict the future of Earth's climate system.

According to Dr. Shi's research team, this memory is related to the thickness of the ocean's top mixed layer. Every year, the ocean "memory" records the temperature above the sea surface. 

The team studied sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the top shallow layer of the ocean, known as the ocean's mixed top layer (MLD). 

Despite the relative shallowness of the MLD (which only extends to a depth of about 50 meters above the ocean's surface), the ocean's top layer of water consistently exhibits the persistence of thermal inertia - its ability to store energy. to help maintain a steady temperature for a while. 

The researchers' computational modeling suggests that between now and the end of the century, the 'memory' effect of thermal inertia in the ocean's top mixed layer will decrease globally. This corresponds to global scientists' predictions that temperature changes on Earth will be significantly larger in the coming decades. 

Shi said the team discovered the phenomenon by examining the similarities in ocean surface temperatures from year to year, as a simple measure of the ocean's "memory". 

According to the study, jostling effects in the MLD would create a greater degree of water mixing in the ocean's top mixed layer, thinning the top water layer. This would reduce the ocean's thermal inertia, leaving the upper part of the ocean vulnerable to temperature anomalies. 

On another note, the decline in ocean memory will make it difficult for scientists to predict what's going to happen in the ocean. This will hamper the ability to predict monsoons, marine heatwaves (MHWs) and periods of extreme weather. 

Earth weather forecast will be more severe in the future. Therefore, the need to accurately forecast measurements such as ocean temperature, precipitation, and atmospheric anomalies becomes more and more important.

However, if the ocean's "memory loss" leads to false measurements, we risk going in a different direction, according to the researchers.