Global Warming Might Be Making Waves Stronger

A new study published in the journal Nature Communications has revealed an as-yet-unseen consequence of climate change, wherein the energy of ocean waves have been increasing around the world caused by widespread ocean warming, which could potentially create further repercussions from coastal change and flooding, and the larger threat of sea level rise.

Published on January 14 in Nature Communications, the new study — A recent increase in global wave power as a consequence of oceanic warming — shows that global wave power (the transport of energy transferred from the wind into sea-surface motion) has increased around the world by 0.4% per year since 1948.  The study also showed long-term correlations and statistical dependency with sea surface temperatures — both globally and by ocean sub-basins — and particularly between the tropical Atlantic temperatures and the wave power in high-south latitudes, already the most energetic region globally.

The results of the study show that upper-ocean warming — warming which is a direct consequence of anthropogenic global warming, as man’s excess warming is sunk into the ocean — is making waves stronger and identifies wave power as a potentially valuable, albeit unknown until now, climate change indicator.

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