Reference a post on JoNova’s site “The Travesty of the Missing Heat”.
In reading this, basically a discussion about heat content of the ocean and its relativity to planet warming, perhaps a more important question is the ocean temperature itself.
Besides being an effective heat sink, the ocean’s massive volume together with its heat properties, provides an accurate measure of average, relatively stabilised temperature and temperature trends, of the planet!
Ocean currents vary considerably but the large number of the Argo buoys are able to provide a more reliable global temperature average trend than can atmospheric measurements. As long as the water mixing or the number and placement of the sensors, or both, provide a realistic mean temperature of the ocean, the global average is far better represented here than in the volatile atmosphere or near surface of the planet.
SO what does this ocean “average” tell us? Far more than a lot of other fundamental data.
Buoy placement:
Temperature:
The GOLDEN RULE 