Huizan Wang

As of 2025, the global full-depth ocean heat content (OHC) has risen by 481 ± 48 ZJ since 1960, with a pronounced increase of 24 ± 6 ZJ from 2024 to 2025. The highest elevations in OHC were measured in the Southern and Pacific Oceans. Key points The 0–300 m, 300–700 m, 700–2,000 m, and below-2,000 m layers have accounted for approximately 40%, 22%, 29%, and 9% of total OHC increase, respectively, since 1960.

1 Introduction The Arctic has been undergoing drastic climate change in recent decades (Landrum & Holland, 2020) owing to rapid changes in the sea ice, atmosphere, and ocean (Kikuchi et al., 2021). The reduction in sea ice varies considerably across the Arctic (Close et al., 2015; Onarheim et al., 2018), particularly along the path of AW (Ivanov et al., 2012; Polyakov et al., 2017, Polyakov, Alkire, et al., 2020, Polyakov, Rippeth, et al., 2020; Smedsrud et al., 2013).

This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon. Open AccessArticle by Yifei Jiang , Weimin Zhang , Huizan Wang and Xiaojiang Zhang * College of Meteorology and Oceanography, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. J. Mar. Sci. Eng.