Les puits de chaleur sous-marins varient au cours du temps et sont responsables des accélérations et ralentissements mesurés dans le réchauffement climatique.
Les pauses dans le réchauffement climatique sont dues à un réchauffement des eaux profondes plutôt que des eaux de surface, ce qui fausse les mesures.
Cet article confirme les conclusions de l'article : Model-based evidence of deep-ocean heat uptake during surface-temperature hiatus periods
A vacillating global heat sink at intermediate ocean depths is associated with different climate regimes of surface warming under anthropogenic forcing: The latter part of the 20th century saw rapid global warming as more heat stayed near the surface. In the 21st century, surface warming slowed as more heat moved into deeper oceans. In situ and reanalyzed data are used to trace the pathways of ocean heat uptake. In addition to the shallow La Niña–like patterns in the Pacific that were the previous focus, we found that the slowdown is mainly caused by heat transported to deeper layers in the Atlantic and the Southern oceans, initiated by a recurrent salinity anomaly in the subpolar North Atlantic. Cooling periods associated with the latter deeper heat-sequestration mechanism historically lasted 20 to 35 years.
