Deep-ocean contribution to sea level and energy budget not detectable over the past decade

As the dominant reservoir of heat uptake in the climate system, the world's oceans provide a critical measure of global climate change. Here, we infer deep-ocean warming in the context of global sea-level rise and Earth's energy budget between January 2005 and December 2013. Direct measurements of ocean warming above 2,000 m depth explain about 32% of the observed annual rate of global mean sea-level rise. Over the entire water column, independent estimates of ocean warming yield a contribution of 0.77 +/- 0.28 mm yr(-1) in sea-level rise and agree with the upper-ocean estimate to within the estimated uncertainties. Accounting for additional possible systematic uncertainties, the deep ocean (below 2,000 m) contributes 0.13 +/- 0.72 mm yr(-1) to global sea-level rise and 0.08 +/- 0.43 Wm(2) to Earth's energy balance. The net warming of the ocean implies an energy imbalance for the Earth of 0.64 +/- 0.44 Wm(2) from 2005 to 2013.