Deep-ocean contribution to sea level and energy budget not detectable over the past decade.

As the dominant reservoir of heat uptake in the climate system, the world's oceans provide a critical measure of global climate change. Here, we infer deep-ocean warming in the context of global sea-level rise and Earth's energy budget between January 2005 and December 2013. Direct measurements of ocean warming above 2,000 m depth explain about 32% of the observed annual rate of global mean sea-level rise. Over the entire water column, independent estimates of ocean warming yield a contribution of 0.77 ± 0.28 mm yr⁻¹ in sea-level rise and agree with the upper-ocean estimate to within the estimated uncertainties. Accounting for additional possible systematic uncertainties, the deep ocean (below 2,000 m) contributes −0.13 ± 0.72 mm yr⁻¹ to global sea-level rise and −0.08 ± 0.43 W m⁻² to Earth's energy balance. The net warming of the ocean implies an energy imbalance for the Earth of 0.64 ± 0.44 W m⁻² from 2005 to 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]