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Ocean heat content, 0–2000 m, five-year means (NCEI)

Heat stored in the top 2,000 metres of the world ocean as running five-year means since 1955–59 (NCEI's basin time series have no yearly or three-month 0–2,000 m values before 2005), as the difference from NCEI's long-term average, in units of 10²² joules, with one standard error.

Latest value

29.510²² J

World Ocean (including the Arctic Ocean), sea surface to 2000 m depth, 2021–2025. Version 2026-07-06.

Ocean heat content, 0–2000 m, five-year means (NCEI) (10²² joules (10 zettajoules))

67 values from 1955–1959 to 2021–2025. The shaded band is the uncertainty range the producer gives.
Show as a table
Ocean heat content, 0–2000 m, five-year means (NCEI), every value
PeriodValue (10²² J)RangeStatus
1955/1959−9.3−11.3 to −7.3final
1956/1960−8.1−10.1 to −6.0final
1957/1961−8.7−10.7 to −6.7final
1958/1962−5.5−7.4 to −3.6final
1959/1963−4.8−6.5 to −3.0final
1960/1964−4.1−5.8 to −2.4final
1961/1965−5.7−7.5 to −3.9final
1962/1966−6.5−8.3 to −4.8final
1963/1967−7.2−9.0 to −5.5final
1964/1968−9.1−10.8 to −7.5final
1965/1969−9.1−10.7 to −7.4final
1966/1970−9.0−10.5 to −7.5final
1967/1971−7.6−9.0 to −6.2final
1968/1972−6.8−8.2 to −5.5final
1969/1973−5.6−6.9 to −4.3final
1970/1974−4.8−6.1 to −3.4final
1971/1975−4.1−5.4 to −2.8final
1972/1976−3.4−4.7 to −2.0final
1973/1977−1.4−2.7 to −0.1final
1974/1978−1.4−2.8 to −0.1final
1975/1979−1.1−2.4 to 0.1final
1976/19800.1−1.1 to 1.2final
1977/19810.1−1.1 to 1.2final
1978/1982−1.2−2.3 to 0.0final
1979/1983−1.4−2.5 to −0.3final
1980/1984−1.1−2.2 to 0.0final
1981/1985−1.0−2.1 to 0.2final
1982/1986−0.2−1.2 to 0.8final
1983/19870.5−0.4 to 1.4final
1984/19880.7−0.2 to 1.7final
1985/19891.00.1 to 1.9final
1986/19900.8−0.1 to 1.8final
1987/19910.4−0.5 to 1.3final
1988/19920.5−0.3 to 1.3final
1989/19933.02.3 to 3.7final
1990/19943.93.2 to 4.6final
1991/19953.83.3 to 4.4final
1992/19963.42.9 to 4.0final
1993/19974.54.0 to 5.1final
1994/19985.04.4 to 5.7final
1995/19995.04.3 to 5.7final
1996/20006.25.4 to 7.1final
1997/20016.25.4 to 7.1final
1998/20027.36.5 to 8.1final
1999/20038.37.7 to 8.9final
2000/20049.59.0 to 9.9final
2001/200510.29.9 to 10.5final
2002/200611.811.5 to 12.1final
2003/200712.011.7 to 12.3final
2004/200812.412.2 to 12.7final
2005/200912.712.4 to 12.9final
2006/201014.113.8 to 14.4final
2007/201114.614.3 to 14.8final
2008/201215.215.0 to 15.5final
2009/201316.716.4 to 16.9final
2010/201417.617.3 to 17.8final
2011/201519.018.8 to 19.2final
2012/201620.019.8 to 20.2final
2013/201721.120.9 to 21.3final
2014/201821.921.7 to 22.1final
2015/201922.122.0 to 22.3final
2016/202023.323.1 to 23.5final
2017/202124.424.3 to 24.6final
2018/202225.225.0 to 25.4final
2019/202327.026.8 to 27.2final
2020/202427.927.8 to 28.1final
2021/202529.529.3 to 29.7final
NOAA NCEI Ocean Heat Content Climate Data Record (Levitus, Antonov, Boyer et al.), NCEI Accession 0164586, doi:10.7289/V53F4MVP, accessed 2026-10-05; Levitus et al. (2012), Geophys. Res. Lett. 39, L10603, doi:10.1029/2012GL051106. No restrictions on use (NOAA CDR Program Open Data Policy; US federal government work).

Where it comes from

Producer
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) · Global ocean heat content basin time series
Version
2026-07-06
File
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/woa/DATA_ANALYSIS/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/DATA/basin/pentad/pent_h22-w0-2000m.dat
Fetched
2026-10-05 (automatically), 3,876 bytes
Fingerprint
sha256 2160656a7afed5d87e95b079374efb83e3ade2f9d1a58e0649290ce0eddf73b4ETag "f24-655f9896b79ae" · Last-Modified Mon, 06 Jul 2026 23:21:41 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

  1. Read pent_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), 67 rows from 1955/1959 to 2021/2025. Each row is a five-year mean; its time column, the middle of the five years (e.g. 1957.5), became the five-year range (1955/1959).

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/ocean/ncei_ohc.py · code sha256 dadfc516ad88d8e9… · inputs 2160656a7afe…

  2. 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 2160656a7afe…

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
Five-year means, one per overlapping five-year window (1955–59, 1956–60, ...). 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)