The dataset for Aerosol emission reductions cause post-2011 rapid warming in the northwestern Pacific.

The northwestern Pacific has exhibited an anomalously rapid warming trend since 2011, with sea surface temperature (SST) increases exceeding seven-fold the global oceanic warming rate, causing significant climate disasters and marine ecosystem destruction. Yet the drivers of this accelerated warming remain insufficiently understood. Here we find that anthropogenic aerosol mitigation constitutes the principal driver of this phenomenon. During 2011−2022, aerosol reduction induces a 2.34 ± 0.91 % decline in cloud cover over the downwind northwestern Pacific region, generating a 6.13 ± 2.43 W/m−² enhancement in surface shortwave radiation that explains 71.63 ± 28.23 % of the observed SST rise. Aerosol-driven ocean warming manifests a five-year lag post-emission reductions, governed by threshold-triggered nonlinear aerosol-cloud interaction where cloud decrease occurs only below critical aerosol thresholds (AOD = 0.2). CMIP6 single-forcing experiments isolate a 0.25 ± 0.14 °C/decade warming signal attributable to aerosol reductions, which accounts for ~65.79± 50.56 % of the simulated SST warming in 2011−2022. These findings provide crucial insights into the climate impacts of anthropogenic aerosol emission reduction, with significant implications for climate policy formulation.