Data
Ocean heat content, 0–2000 m, yearly (NCEI)
Heat stored in the top 2,000 metres of the world ocean in each year since 2005, as the difference from NCEI's long-term average, in units of 10²² joules, with one standard error.
Latest value
32.510²² J
World Ocean (including the Arctic Ocean), sea surface to 2000 m depth, 2025. Version 2026-07-06.
Ocean heat content, 0–2000 m, yearly (NCEI) (10²² joules (10 zettajoules))
Show as a table
| Period | Value (10²² J) | Range | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 10.2 | 9.3 to 11.0 | final |
| 2006 | 12.6 | 12.3 to 13.0 | final |
| 2007 | 12.4 | 12.0 to 12.8 | final |
| 2008 | 13.3 | 12.7 to 13.8 | final |
| 2009 | 13.4 | 12.8 to 14.1 | final |
| 2010 | 14.5 | 14.0 to 15.1 | final |
| 2011 | 15.4 | 14.9 to 15.9 | final |
| 2012 | 16.2 | 15.7 to 16.7 | final |
| 2013 | 18.7 | 17.6 to 19.7 | final |
| 2014 | 20.1 | 19.5 to 20.7 | final |
| 2015 | 22.4 | 22.0 to 22.8 | final |
| 2016 | 20.8 | 20.0 to 21.6 | final |
| 2017 | 23.6 | 23.0 to 24.2 | final |
| 2018 | 24.1 | 23.2 to 24.9 | final |
| 2019 | 25.4 | 25.1 to 25.7 | final |
| 2020 | 25.5 | 24.6 to 26.4 | final |
| 2021 | 27.3 | 26.9 to 27.6 | final |
| 2022 | 28.2 | 27.9 to 28.4 | final |
| 2023 | 29.2 | 28.7 to 29.8 | final |
| 2024 | 30.3 | 30.1 to 30.5 | final |
| 2025 | 32.5 | 32.3 to 32.8 | final |
Where it comes from
- Producer
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) · Global ocean heat content basin time series
- Version
- 2026-07-06
- Fetched
- 2026-10-05 (automatically), 1,254 bytes
- Fingerprint
- sha256 5b0fabf106dc1473f0a658baaced5245bc19e33a39c6d86294a3cf074ac0f5b4ETag "4e6-655f989663dd4" · Last-Modified Mon, 06 Jul 2026 23:21:40 GMT
- Copies
- No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
- Cite the producer
- Levitus, Sydney; Antonov, John I.; Boyer, Tim P.; Baranova, Olga K.; García, Hernán E.; Locarnini, Ricardo A.; Mishonov, Alexey V.; Reagan, James R.; Seidov, Dan; Yarosh, Evgeney; Zweng, Melissa M. (2017). NCEI ocean heat content, temperature anomalies, salinity anomalies, thermosteric sea level anomalies, halosteric sea level anomalies, and total steric sea level anomalies from 1955 to present calculated from in situ oceanographic subsurface profile data (NCEI Accession 0164586). Global Ocean Heat and Salt Content - Seasonal, Yearly, and Pentadal Fields. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.7289/v53f4mvp. Accessed 2026-10-05. Levitus, S., J. I. Antonov, T. P. Boyer, O. K. Baranova, H. E. Garcia, R. A. Locarnini, A.V. Mishonov, J. R. Reagan, D. Seidov, E. S. Yarosh, M. M. Zweng, 2012: World Ocean heat content and thermosteric sea level change (0-2000 m) 1955-2010. Geophys. Res. Lett. , 39, L10603, doi:10.1029/2012GL051106.
What was done to it
Read h22-w0-2000m.dat (World Ocean heat content, 0-2000 m, in 10^22 joules; last modified by NCEI on 2026-07-06, which is the vintage, since the file carries no version), 21 rows from 2005 to 2025. The time column (year + 0.5) became the year.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/ocean/ncei_ohc.py · code sha256 dadfc516ad88d8e9… · inputs 5b0fabf106dc…
Published the World Ocean column as printed. Lower and upper are that value minus and plus NCEI's standard error from the next column (one standard error). The hemisphere columns are not published.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/ocean/ncei_ohc.py · code sha256 dadfc516ad88d8e9… · inputs 5b0fabf106dc…
What it covers
- Geography
- World Ocean (including the Arctic Ocean), sea surface to 2000 m depth
- Baseline
- Difference from NCEI's long-term climatological mean (the World Ocean Atlas series); the files and product pages do not name the climatology's period
- Basis
- Yearly means. Heat content anomaly integrated over the layer, calculated by NCEI from in situ subsurface temperature profiles quality controlled in the World Ocean Database (method of Levitus et al. 2012).
- Unit
- 10²² joules (10 zettajoules) (10²² J)