The Earth's oceans are relentlessly heating up, yet evaporation is slowing down. What’s happening? (photos)

In recent decades, scientists have consistently raised alarms about the climate crisis looming over our planet: as a result, the world has faced unprecedented heat waves and droughts. Researchers have also noted a rise in the Global Ocean temperature, but now a new study has revealed something astonishing: the findings challenge the widely accepted understanding of the relationship between global warming and ocean evaporation, as reported by PHYS.org.

In this new study, a research team from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered a phenomenon where, despite the rising sea surface temperatures, evaporation from the Global Ocean has decreased over the past decade.

Ocean evaporation plays a central role in the hydrological cycle of our planet, contributing over 85% of atmospheric water vapor. It was previously assumed that higher sea surface temperatures would increase evaporation rates. However, observations over the past quarter-century have revealed a puzzling slowdown in the growth of global water vapor. These results have prompted scientists to reconsider how ocean evaporation responds to rising temperatures.

In their work, the researchers analyzed advanced satellite data on ocean heat flux to assess long-term trends in global ocean evaporation. Their findings revealed a significant shift in evaporation trends over the past decades.

According to the lead author of the study, Dr. Ma Ning, their findings indicate that while global ocean evaporation showed an upward trend from 1988 to 2017, the situation changed in the late 2000s. The authors discovered that since then, two-thirds of the world's oceans have experienced a reduction in evaporation, leading to a slight decline in global evaporation rates between 2008 and 2017. Unfortunately, this contradicts what we typically expect with climate warming.

During the study, the team was able to identify a key factor behind this unexpected trend: it turns out that it is related to a phenomenon known as "wind stagnation" — a decrease in wind speed. The team suggests that "wind stagnation" is likely connected to shifts in atmospheric circulation patterns, particularly with the North Atlantic Oscillation index, which, according to Dr. Ma, has recently entered a negative phase.

It is believed that changes in wind speed may be caused by decadal shifts in Earth's climate system. However, scientists caution that the current decrease in ocean evaporation should not necessarily be interpreted as a weakening of the hydrological cycle. The team believes that the current results may also reflect natural climate fluctuations.

While the trend of decreasing ocean evaporation may seem counterintuitive in the context of global warming, it highlights the complexity of Earth's climate system and the intricate feedback mechanisms at play.