Heat Capacity

Heat capacity is the heat required to raise the temperature of a body by one kelvin; the intensive form, specific heat capacity, is per unit mass. The ocean dominates Earth’s heat capacity: seawater’s specific heat near 3,990 J per kg per K, times the mass of the upper ocean, lets the top few meters store as much heat as the entire atmosphere. This large capacity gives the ocean its thermal inertia, damping seasonal and interannual temperature swings and pacing the climate response to forcing. Under TEOS-10 the fixed value 3991.867 J per kg per K defines Conservative Temperature.