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Project: GCOS Earth Heat Inventory - A study under the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) concerted international effort to update the Earth heat inventory (EHI), and presents an updated international assessment of ocean warming estimates, and new and updated estimates of heat gain in the atmosphere, cryosphere and land over the period from 1960 to present. Summary: The file “GCOS_EHI_1960-2020_Earth_Heat_Inventory_Ocean_Heat_Content_data.nc” contains a consistent long-term Earth system heat inventory over the period 1960-2020. Human-induced atmospheric composition changes cause a radiative imbalance at the top-of-atmosphere which is driving global warming. Understanding the heat gain of the Earth system from this accumulated heat – and particularly how much and where the heat is distributed in the Earth system - is fundamental to understanding how this affects warming oceans, atmosphere and land, rising temperatures and sea level, and loss of grounded and floating ice, which are fundamental concerns for society. This dataset is based on a study under the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) concerted international effort to update the Earth heat inventory published in von Schuckmann et al. (2020), and presents an updated international assessment of ocean warming estimates, and new and updated estimates of heat gain in the atmosphere, cryosphere and land over the period 1960-2020. The dataset also contains estimates for global ocean heat content over 1960-2020 for different depth layers, i.e., 0-300m, 0-700m, 700-2000m, 0-2000m, 2000-bottom, which are described in von Schuckmann et al. (2022). This version includes an update of heat storage of global ocean heat content, where one additional product (Li et al., 2022) had been included to the initial estimate. The Earth heat inventory had been updated accordingly, considering also the update for continental heat content (Cuesta-Valero et al., 2023).

This is the fifth instalment from the annual series 10 New Insights in Climate Science, which aims to synthesise and communicate the latest and most essential scientific findings on climate change. It is the result of a collaboration between Future Earth, Earth League and the World Climate Research Program (WCRP). This report constitutes a climate science year-in-review for journalists, policy makers, and the general public. A peer-reviewed academic article published in parallel to this policy report, provides an in-depth explanation of the ten insights, as well as a complete account of the reviewing process. These are the 2021 ten New Insights in Climate Science: Stabilizing at 1.5°C warming is still possible, but immediate and drastic global action is required. Rapid growth in methane and nitrous oxide emissions put us on track for 2.7°C warming Megafires – climate change forces fire extremes to reach new dimensions with extreme impacts Climate tipping elements incur high-impact risks Global climate action must be just Supporting household behaviour changes is a crucial but often overlooked opportunity for climate action Political challenges impede effectiveness of carbon pricing Nature-based solutions are critical for the pathway to Paris – but look at the fine print Building resilience of marine ecosystems is achievable by climate-adapted conservation and management, and global stewardship Costs of climate change mitigation can be justified by the multiple immediate benefits to the health of humans and nature