2018 was the hottest year on record for Earth’s oceans. Since scientists started measuring ocean temperatures in the mid-1950s, they've never seen heat like this. According to a study published today in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, 2018 broke the 2017 temperature record, which in turn smashed 2016's. The planet's oceans absorb a whopping 93% of the extra heat that greenhouse gases trap in the atmosphere. And recent research revealed that this absorption process is happening far faster than scientists previously realized. According to an analysis published in the journal Science last week, the world’s oceans are heating up 40% faster (on average) than the prior estimate. In one sense, the oceans' heat-trapping abilities help us in the short term. “If the ocean wasn’t absorbing as much heat, the surface of the land would heat up much faster than it is right now,” Malin Pinsky, an associate professor of ecology and natural resources at Rutgers University, told the New York Times. “In fact, the ocean is saving us from massive warming right now.” If all the heat trapped by the world’s oceans since the 1950s was added to our atmosphere, air temperatures would shoot up by 65 degrees Fahrenheit, according to scientists at the National Oceanographic Data Center’s Ocean Climate Lab. But overall, warmer oceans are a major problem. More heat in the water can negatively impact marine species, kill coral reefs, and lead to more severe storms. Warmer oceans mean Antarctic ice is melting more quickly as well — six times faster, in fact, than it was melting 40 years ago, according to another recent study. Importantly, rising ocean temperatures also lead sea levels to rise, since water (like most things) expands when it's heated. Even small changes in temperature results in a large increase in water volume. In a “business-as-usual” scenario — in which we continue emitting greenhouse gasses as projected — rising ocean temperatures could lead sea levels to rise a full foot between now and the year 2100. Bearers of bad news A handful of studies about ocean temperature since 2014 have conflicted with the numbers from the world's scientific authority on climate, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In the analysis published last week, researchers concluded that some adjustments in how ocean heat gets measured were to blame for the discrepancy. Taking those adjustments into account, the scientists figured out that oceans are warming much faster than the IPCC had calculated. By the end of this century, the study suggests, the top 2,000 meters of the ocean will see a temperature rise of 0.78 degrees Celsius (about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit). The analysis also refutes claims that there was a global warming “hiatus” — a pause in temperature rise — between 2000 and 2014. As ocean temperatures continue to increase, we'll see more coastal flooding because of sea-level rise, as well as heavier rainfall and more severe hurricanes. That's because hurricanes' wind speed is influenced by the temperature of the water below. A 1-degree Fahrenheit rise in ocean temperature can increase a storm's wind speed by 15 to 20 miles per hour, according to Yale Climate Connections. Higher ocean temperatures can also cause corals to expel the algae living in their tissues and turn white — what's known as coral bleaching. This increases their mortality risk, along with that of the many species that live in and around reefs. People who rely on fish for food could be affected too, Kathryn Matthews, deputy chief scientist for the conservation group Oceana, told the New York Times. “The actual ability of the warm oceans to produce food is much lower, so that means they’re going to be more quickly approaching food insecurity," she said. Why scientists initially underestimated ocean heat Climate scientists have long had their eyes on ocean temperatures as a definitive indicator of how our planet’s climate is changing as a result of the greenhouse gases humans send into the atmosphere. Whereas surface temperatures can fluctuate year to year thanks to short-term weather patterns or volcanic eruptions, ocean temperatures don't. “The vast majority of global warming heat ends up deposited in the world’s oceans,” the study on 2018's ocean temperature says. The authors noted that ocean temperature is “one of the best — if not the best — metric for climate change.” One of the biggest challenges in measuring those temperatures, however, is gathering enough data, since the oceans are so large and vast. Starting in the mid-2000s, scientists began measuring ocean heat via a flotilla of thousands of drifting instruments called Argo. These floats dive to a depth of 2,000 feet every few days, then note the ocean's temperature, acidity, and salinity as they rise back to the surface. They then to transmit that data to satellites. Before Argo, ocean temperature collection was more piece-meal — scientists would sometimes send sensors down to watery depths, but these sensors would transmit data only once before sinking to the bottom forever. NOAA deploys an Argo float to capture ocean temperature data. A new independent study shows no pause in global warming, confirming a set of temperature readings adjusted by U.S. government scientists that some who reject mainstream climate science have questioned. NOAA Corps, Lt. Elizabeth Crapo/AP “Scientists are continually working to improve how to interpret and analyze what was a fairly imperfect and limited set of data prior to the early 2000s,” Zeke Hausfather, one of the study’s co-authors and a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, told Berkeley News. “These four new records that have been published in recent years seem to fix a lot of problems that were plaguing the old records, and now they seem to agree quite well with what the climate models have produced.” These new findings align with research published in November 2018 that also indicated (despite a few corrections after publication) that scientists had been underestimating ocean warming. “For each of the past 25 years, oceans have absorbed an amount of heat energy that is 150 times the energy humans produce as electricity annually," the Scripps Institution of Oceanography reported. In this April 26, 2017, photo Jim O'Neill walks through a flooded street in front of his home in Manahawkin N.J., after a moderate storm. He lives in a low-lying area near the Jersey shore, and is often affected by back bay flooding, a type of recurring nuisance flooding that's affecting millions of Americans. Wayne Perry/AP Heat isn't the only troublesome thing oceans are absorbing. They also thanklessly take in roughly 25% of the carbon dioxide we emit. According to 2017 study, the oceans have absorbed about 40% of all carbon dioxide emissions since the beginning of the industrial era. Think of them as Earth’s air purifiers. As Michael Crosby, president of Mote Laboratory and Aquarium, previously put it to Business Insider: “You like to breathe? Estimates are that up to 80% of the oxygen you are breathing in right now comes from the ocean."<doc-sep>Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter. Scientists say the world’s oceans are warming far more quickly than previously thought, a finding with dire implications for climate change because almost all the excess heat absorbed by the planet ends up stored in their waters. A new analysis, published Thursday in the journal Science, found that the oceans are heating up 40 percent faster on average than a United Nations panel estimated five years ago. The researchers also concluded that ocean temperatures have broken records for several straight years. “2018 is going to be the warmest year on record for the Earth’s oceans,” said Zeke Hausfather, an energy systems analyst at the independent climate research group Berkeley Earth and an author of the study. “As 2017 was the warmest year, and 2016 was the warmest year.” As the planet has warmed, the oceans have provided a critical buffer. They have slowed the effects of climate change by absorbing 93 percent of the heat trapped by the greenhouse gases humans pump into the atmosphere.<doc-sep>
(CNN) — The world’s oceans are warming at an accelerated rate and are much warmer than scientists thought – and things could get a lot worse if nothing is done to stop climate change, according to a new study. The data, published in Thursday’s edition of the journal Science, shows that the oceans have experienced consistent changes since the late 1950s and have gotten a lot warmer since the 1960s. The oceans are heating up much faster than scientists calculated in the UN assessment of climate change released in 2014. For the new study, scientists used data collected by a high-tech ocean observing system called Argo, an international network of more than 3,000 robotic floats that continuously measure the temperature and salinity of the water. Researchers used this data in combination with other historic temperature information and studies. The study authors say the warming is happening because of climate change created by such human activities as the burning of fossil fuels. “The ocean is the memory of climate change, along with melted ice, and 93% of the Earth’s energy imbalance ends up in the ocean,” said study co-author Kevin Trenberth, part of the Climate Analysis Section at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research. “Global warming is close to ocean warming, and 2018 will be the warmest year on record, followed by 2017, then 2015.” Though a warmer ocean might make for a more pleasant swim, it carries deadly consequences. A warmer ocean causes sea level to rise, bringing problems like dangerous coastal flooding. It leads to the loss of sea ice, heating the waters even further. It can affect the jet stream, allowing cold Arctic air to reach farther south, making winters more intense, and endanger the lives of animals that depend on sea ice like penguins and polar bears. A warmer ocean also contributes to increases in rainfall and leads to stronger and longer-lasting storms like Hurricanes Florence and Harvey. “The warming is convoluted with natural variability, and one of the warmest spots was where [Florence] developed this past year and where Harvey developed this previous year,” Trenberth said. “The warm water fuels the evaporation and moisture for storms.” For every 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degree Fahrenheit) increase in temperature, there is 7% more moisture in the air. Ocean temperatures around Florence trended 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) warmer than normal, contributing to about 10% more moisture available in the atmosphere. We could see many more weather-related problems if the ocean continues to warm at this accelerated pace, especially if there is no human intervention to manage climate change, experts say. “Global warming is rearing its head,” Trenberth said. If humans don’t do anything to mitigate climate change, warming in the upper part of the ocean will be six times higher by 2081-2100 than total ocean warming in the past 60 years, researchers estimate. If, however, humans act and can reach the goals set by the Paris agreement, ocean warming could be cut in half by 2081-2100, the authors said. The study fits within other reports like the United Nations warning in October that humanity has just over 10 years to act to avoid disastrous levels of global warming. That report urged governments to make “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” The UN report found that the planet would reach the crucial threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by as early as 2030, precipitating the risk of extreme drought, wildfires, floods and food shortages for hundreds of millions of people. Get CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team. A US government report in November delivered a similar dire warning that the country could lose hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives by the end of the century due to climate change. CNN’s Brandon Miller contributed to this report.