Climate Number: 73 Terawatts
The energy moving in both weather systems and through the wires that power your home can be measured in watts. The Sun heats the Earth causing the fluids of the atmosphere and the oceans to move, creating the winds and currents of Earth’s climate. The vast majority of the energy in the climate system moves through the oceans, where currents of warm and cold waters that dwarf even the largest of Earth’s land rivers transport heat and salt to and from the different ocean basins. Compared to other waters in the Arctic, the Barents Sea, which lies to the north of Scandinavia, has a relatively low amount of seasonal sea ice cover. While the northern portion of the sea freezes over with several feet of ice, the southern portion of the sea remains ice free. A current of water from the North Atlantic brings the basin a sufficient amount of warm water to ward off the Arctic ice’s southerly advance. This current moves about 86 terawatts worth of heat into the Barents Sea, and about 13 terawatts leave the sea through other currents. The remaining 73 terawatts is lost into the atmosphere, making what is known as the Barents Sea Opening a major exit, or release point, for the ocean’s heat storage.
For Comparison: It would take about 61,000 1200 megawatt nuclear power plants – about 140 times the number that exist around the world today – to generate 73 terawatts worth of power. This amount of power is almost 30 times the world’s current electrical generation capacity.
Seasons: Winter, Spring
Sources: Smedsrud, LH et al. “Heat in the Barents Sea: transport, storage, and surface fluxes.” Ocean Science 6 (2010): 219-234 and World Nuclear Association. “Nuclear Power in the World Today.” Accessed Online 28 February 2010
