The regulator of climate-the ocean

As the most important part of the earth's hydrosphere, the ocean is interdependent and interactive with the climate system, and it is the basic link to control the earth's surface environment and life characteristics.

The ocean covers 765,438+0% of the earth's surface area, accounting for 97% of the earth's total water resources. If measured by volume, the ocean occupies 99% of the biological development space on the earth.

Most of the solar radiation reaching the earth falls on the ocean and is absorbed by the ocean. Because of the huge mass and specific heat of the oceans, they constitute a huge energy storage.

The huge thermal inertia of the ocean makes the change of sea surface temperature much smaller than that of land surface temperature, which plays a role of buffer and regulator for the change of atmospheric temperature. If the global surface seawater with a thickness of 100 m cools 1℃, the released heat can raise the global atmosphere by 60℃.

The ocean is also the main source of water vapor in the atmosphere. When seawater evaporates, it will bring a lot of water vapor from the ocean into the atmosphere. The evaporation of the ocean accounts for about 84% of the total evaporation, and 3.6 trillion cubic meters of water can be converted into steam every year.

Therefore, the thermal state and evaporation of the ocean directly affect the content and distribution of heat and water vapor in the atmosphere. At the same time, the ocean absorbs 40% of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is considered as one of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

Ocean currents can transport part of the stored energy from the tropics to the cold mid-high latitudes, release energy to the atmosphere in the form of sensible heat and latent heat, and provide a large amount of water vapor to the atmosphere.

When the water vapor on the sea surface condenses into rain and snow and falls on all continental surfaces to become the source of fresh water on the earth's surface, the ocean has already participated in the water cycle on the earth's surface.

Therefore, the sustainable development of mankind, everyone's life, and all life on earth depend on a healthy ocean.

Source | Popular Science China-Talking about the Master of Science and Technology Frontier

Author | Lu

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