mediterranean-sea
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'''DEFINITION''' Ocean heat content (OHC) is defined here as the deviation from a reference period (1993-2014) and is closely proportional to the average temperature change from z1 = 0 m to z2 = 700 m depth: OHC=∫_(z_1)^(z_2)ρ_0 c_p (T_yr-T_clim )dz [1] with a reference density of = 1030 kgm-3 and a specific heat capacity of cp = 3980 J kg-1 °C-1 (e.g. von Schuckmann et al., 2009). Time series of annual mean values area averaged ocean heat content is provided for the Mediterranean Sea (30°N, 46°N; 6°W, 36°E) and is evaluated for topography deeper than 300m. '''CONTEXT''' Knowing how much and where heat energy is stored and released in the ocean is essential for understanding the contemporary Earth system state, variability and change, as the oceans shape our perspectives for the future. The quality evaluation of MEDSEA_OMI_OHC_area_averaged_anomalies is based on the “multi-product” approach as introduced in the second issue of the Ocean State Report (von Schuckmann et al., 2018), and following the MyOcean’s experience (Masina et al., 2017). Six global products and a regional (Mediterranean Sea) product have been used to build an ensemble mean, and its associated ensemble spread. The reference products are: • The Mediterranean Sea Reanalysis at 1/24 degree horizontal resolution (MEDSEA_MULTIYEAR_PHY_006_004, DOI: https://doi.org/10.25423/CMCC/MEDSEA_MULTIYEAR_PHY_006_004_E3R1, Escudier et al., 2020) • Four global reanalyses at 1/4 degree horizontal resolution (GLOBAL_MULTIYEAR_PHY_ENS_001_031): GLORYS, C-GLORS, ORAS5, FOAM • Two observation based products: CORA (INSITU_GLO_PHY_TS_OA_MY_013_052) and ARMOR3D (MULTIOBS_GLO_PHY_TSUV_3D_MYNRT_015_012). Details on the products are delivered in the PUM and QUID of this OMI. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The ensemble mean ocean heat content anomaly time series over the Mediterranean Sea shows a continuous increase in the period 1993-2022 at rate of 1.38±0.08 W/m2 in the upper 700m. After 2005 the rate has clearly increased with respect the previous decade, in agreement with Iona et al. (2018). '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00261
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'''This product has been archived''' For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu '''DEFINITION''' We have derived an annual eutrophication and eutrophication indicator map for the North Atlantic Ocean using satellite-derived chlorophyll concentration. Using the satellite-derived chlorophyll products distributed in the regional North Atlantic CMEMS REP Ocean Colour dataset (OC- CCI), we derived P90 and P10 daily climatologies. The time period selected for the climatology was 1998-2017. For a given pixel, P90 and P10 were defined as dynamic thresholds such as 90% of the 1998-2017 chlorophyll values for that pixel were below the P90 value, and 10% of the chlorophyll values were below the P10 value. To minimise the effect of gaps in the data in the computation of these P90 and P10 climatological values, we imposed a threshold of 25% valid data for the daily climatology. For the 20-year 1998-2017 climatology this means that, for a given pixel and day of the year, at least 5 years must contain valid data for the resulting climatological value to be considered significant. Pixels where the minimum data requirements were met were not considered in further calculations. We compared every valid daily observation over 2020 with the corresponding daily climatology on a pixel-by-pixel basis, to determine if values were above the P90 threshold, below the P10 threshold or within the [P10, P90] range. Values above the P90 threshold or below the P10 were flagged as anomalous. The number of anomalous and total valid observations were stored during this process. We then calculated the percentage of valid anomalous observations (above/below the P90/P10 thresholds) for each pixel, to create percentile anomaly maps in terms of % days per year. Finally, we derived an annual indicator map for eutrophication levels: if 25% of the valid observations for a given pixel and year were above the P90 threshold, the pixel was flagged as eutrophic. Similarly, if 25% of the observations for a given pixel were below the P10 threshold, the pixel was flagged as oligotrophic. '''CONTEXT''' Eutrophication is the process by which an excess of nutrients – mainly phosphorus and nitrogen – in a water body leads to increased growth of plant material in an aquatic body. Anthropogenic activities, such as farming, agriculture, aquaculture and industry, are the main source of nutrient input in problem areas (Jickells, 1998; Schindler, 2006; Galloway et al., 2008). Eutrophication is an issue particularly in coastal regions and areas with restricted water flow, such as lakes and rivers (Howarth and Marino, 2006; Smith, 2003). The impact of eutrophication on aquatic ecosystems is well known: nutrient availability boosts plant growth – particularly algal blooms – resulting in a decrease in water quality (Anderson et al., 2002; Howarth et al.; 2000). This can, in turn, cause death by hypoxia of aquatic organisms (Breitburg et al., 2018), ultimately driving changes in community composition (Van Meerssche et al., 2019). Eutrophication has also been linked to changes in the pH (Cai et al., 2011, Wallace et al. 2014) and depletion of inorganic carbon in the aquatic environment (Balmer and Downing, 2011). Oligotrophication is the opposite of eutrophication, where reduction in some limiting resource leads to a decrease in photosynthesis by aquatic plants, reducing the capacity of the ecosystem to sustain the higher organisms in it. Eutrophication is one of the more long-lasting water quality problems in Europe (OSPAR ICG-EUT, 2017), and is on the forefront of most European Directives on water-protection. Efforts to reduce anthropogenically-induced pollution resulted in the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in 2000. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' Some coastal and shelf waters, especially between 30 and 400N showed active oligotrophication flags for 2020, with some scattered offshore locations within the same latitudinal belt also showing oligotrophication. Eutrophication index is positive only for a small number of coastal locations just north of 40oN, and south of 30oN. In general, the indicator map showed very few areas with active eutrophication flags for 2019 and for 2020. The Third Integrated Report on the Eutrophication Status of the OSPAR Maritime Area (OSPAR ICG-EUT, 2017) reported an improvement from 2008 to 2017 in eutrophication status across offshore and outer coastal waters of the Greater North Sea, with a decrease in the size of coastal problem areas in Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom. Note: The key findings will be updated annually in November, in line with OMI evolutions. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00195
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'''This product has been archived''' For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu '''DEFINITION''' The time series are derived from the regional chlorophyll reprocessed (REP) product as distributed by CMEMS. This dataset, derived from multi-sensor (SeaStar-SeaWiFS, AQUA-MODIS, NOAA20-VIIRS, NPP-VIIRS, Envisat-MERIS and Sentinel3A-OLCI) Rrs spectra produced by CNR using an in-house processing chain, is obtained by means of the Mediterranean Ocean Colour regional algorithms: an updated version of the MedOC4 (Case 1 (off-shore) waters, Volpe et al., 2019, with new coefficients) and AD4 (Case 2 (coastal) waters, Berthon and Zibordi, 2004). The processing chain and the techniques used for algorithms merging are detailed in Colella et al. (2021). Monthly regional mean values are calculated by performing the average of 2D monthly mean (weighted by pixel area) over the region of interest. The deseasonalized time series is obtained by applying the X-11 seasonal adjustment methodology on the original time series as described in Colella et al. (2016), and then the Mann-Kendall test (Mann, 1945; Kendall, 1975) and Sens’s method (Sen, 1968) are subsequently applied to obtain the magnitude of trend. '''CONTEXT''' Phytoplankton and chlorophyll concentration as a proxy for phytoplankton respond rapidly to changes in environmental conditions, such as light, temperature, nutrients and mixing (Colella et al. 2016). The character of the response depends on the nature of the change drivers, and ranges from seasonal cycles to decadal oscillations (Basterretxea et al. 2018). Therefore, it is of critical importance to monitor chlorophyll concentration at multiple temporal and spatial scales, in order to be able to separate potential long-term climate signals from natural variability in the short term. In particular, phytoplankton in the Mediterranean Sea is known to respond to climate variability associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (Basterretxea et al. 2018, Colella et al. 2016). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' In the Mediterranean Sea, the trend average for the 1997-2020 period is slightly negative (-0.580.62% per year). Due to the change in processing techniques and chlorophyll retrieval, this trend estimate cannot be compared directly to those previously reported. The observations time series (in grey) shows minima values have been quite constant until 2015 and then there is a little decrease up to 2020, when an absolute minimum occurs with values lower than 0.04 mg m-3. Throughout the time series, maxima are variable year by year (with absolute maximum in 2015, >0.14 mg m-3), showing an evident reduction since 2016. In the last years of the series, the decrease of chlorophyll concentrations is also observed in the deseasonalized timeseries (in green) with a marked step in 2020. This attenuation of chlorophyll values in the last years results in an overall negative trend for the Mediterranean Sea. Note: The key findings will be updated annually in November, in line with OMI evolutions. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00259
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'''This product has been archived''' For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu '''Short description:''' Altimeter satellite along-track sea surface heights anomalies (SLA) computed with respect to a twenty-year [1993, 2012] mean with a 1Hz (~7km) sampling. It serves in near-real time applications. This product is processed by the DUACS multimission altimeter data processing system. It processes data from all altimeter missions available (e.g. Sentinel-6A, Jason-3, Sentinel-3A, Sentinel-3B, Saral/AltiKa, Cryosat-2, HY-2B). The system exploits the most recent datasets available based on the enhanced OGDR/NRT+IGDR/STC production. All the missions are homogenized with respect to a reference mission. Part of the processing is fitted to the European Sea area. (see QUID document or http://duacs.cls.fr [http://duacs.cls.fr] pages for processing details). The product gives additional variables (e.g. Mean Dynamic Topography, Dynamic Atmospheric Correction, Ocean Tides, Long Wavelength Errors) that can be used to change the physical content for specific needs (see PUM document for details) “’Associated products”’ A time invariant product http://marine.copernicus.eu/services-portfolio/access-to-products/?option=com_csw&view=details&product_id=SEALEVEL_GLO_NOISE_L4_NRT_OBSERVATIONS_008_032 [http://marine.copernicus.eu/services-portfolio/access-to-products/?option=com_csw&view=details&product_id=SEALEVEL_GLO_PHY_NOISE_L4_STATIC_008_033] describing the noise level of along-track measurements is available. It is associated to the sla_filtered variable. It is a gridded product. One file is provided for the global ocean and those values must be applied for Arctic and Europe products. For Mediterranean and Black seas, one value is given in the QUID document. '''DOI (product) :''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00140
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'''Short description:''' For the Mediterranean Sea - The product contains daily Level-3 sea surface wind with a 1km horizontal pixel spacing using Near Real-Time Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) observations and their collocated European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model outputs. Products are updated several times daily to provide the best product timeliness. '''DOI (product) :''' https://doi.org/10.48670/mds-00334
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'''DEFINITION''' Time mean meridional Eulerian streamfunctions are computed using the velocity field estimate provided by the Copernicus Marine Mediterranean Sea reanalysis over the period from 1987 to the year preceding the current one [-1Y], operationally extended yearly. The Eulerian meridional streamfunction is evaluated by integrating meridional velocity daily data first in a vertical direction, then in a meridional direction, and finally averaging over the reanalysis period. The Mediterranean overturning indices are derived for the eastern and western Mediterranean Sea by computing the annual streamfunction in the two areas separated by the Strait of Sicily around 36.5°N, and then considering the associated maxima. In each case a geographical constraint focused the computation on the main region of interest. For the western index, we focused on deep-water formation regions, thus excluding both the effect of shallow physical processes and the Gibraltar net inflow. For the eastern index, we investigate the Levantine and Cretan areas corresponding to the strongest meridional overturning cell locations, thus only a zonal constraint is defined. Time series of annual mean values is provided for the Mediterranean Sea using the Mediterranean 1/24o eddy resolving reanalysis (Escudier et al., 2020, 2021). More details can be found in the Copernicus Marine Ocean State Report issue 4 (OSR4, von Schuckmann et al., 2020) Section 2.4 (Lyubartsev et al., 2020) and in the QUID. '''CONTEXT''' The western and eastern Mediterranean clockwise meridional overturning circulation is connected to deep-water formation processes. The Mediterranean Sea 1/24o eddy resolving reanalysis (MEDSEA_MULTIYEAR_PHY_006_004, Escudier et al., 2020, 2021) is used to show the interannual variability of the Meridional Overturning Index. Details on the product are delivered in the PUM and QUID of this OMI. The Mediterranean Meridional Overturning Index is defined here as the maxima of the clockwise cells in the eastern and western Mediterranean Sea and is associated with deep and intermediate water mass formation processes that occur in specific areas of the basin: Gulf of Lion, Southern Adriatic Sea, Cretan Sea and Rhodes Gyre (Pinardi et al., 2015). As in the global ocean, the overturning circulation of the western and eastern Mediterranean are paramount to determine the stratification of the basins (Cessi, 2019). In turn, the stratification and deep water formation mediate the exchange of oxygen and other tracers between the surface and the deep ocean (e.g., Johnson et al., 2009; Yoon et al., 2018). In this sense, the overturning indices are potential gauges of the ecosystem health of the Mediterranean Sea, and in particular they could instruct early warning indices for the Mediterranean Sea to support the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 Target 13.3. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The western and eastern Mediterranean overturning indices (WMOI and EMOI) are synthetic indices of changes in the thermohaline properties of the Mediterranean basin related to changes in the main drivers of the basin scale circulation. The western sub-basin clockwise overturning circulation is associated with the deep-water formation area of the Gulf of Lion, while the eastern clockwise meridional overturning circulation is composed of multiple cells associated with different intermediate and deep-water sources in the Levantine, Aegean, and Adriatic Seas. On average, the EMOI shows higher values than the WMOI indicating a more vigorous overturning circulation in eastern Mediterranean. The difference is mostly related to the occurrence of the eastern Mediterranean transient (EMT) climatic event, and linked to a peak of the EMOI in 1992 (Roether et al. 1996, 2014, Gertman et al. 2006). In 1999, the difference between the two indices started to decrease because EMT water masses reached the Sicily Strait flowing into the western Mediterranean Sea (Schroeder et al., 2016). The western peak in 2006 is discussed to be linked to anomalous deep-water formation during the Western Mediterranean Transition (Smith, 2008; Schroeder et al., 2016). Thus, the WMOI and EMOI indices are a useful tool for long-term climate monitoring of overturning changes in the Mediterranean Sea. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/mds-00317
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'''DEFINITION''' The CMEMS MEDSEA_OMI_tempsal_extreme_var_temp_mean_and_anomaly OMI indicator is based on the computation of the annual 99th percentile of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) from model data. Two different CMEMS products are used to compute the indicator: The Iberia-Biscay-Ireland Multi Year Product (MEDSEA_MULTIYEAR_PHY_006_004) and the Analysis product (MEDSEA_ANALYSISFORECAST_PHY_006_013). Two parameters have been considered for this OMI: * Map of the 99th mean percentile: It is obtained from the Multi Year Product, the annual 99th percentile is computed for each year of the product. The percentiles are temporally averaged over the whole period (1987-2019). * Anomaly of the 99th percentile in 2020: The 99th percentile of the year 2020 is computed from the Near Real Time product. The anomaly is obtained by subtracting the mean percentile from the 2020 percentile. This indicator is aimed at monitoring the extremes of sea surface temperature every year and at checking their variations in space. The use of percentiles instead of annual maxima, makes this extremes study less affected by individual data. This study of extreme variability was first applied to the sea level variable (Pérez Gómez et al 2016) and then extended to other essential variables, such as sea surface temperature and significant wave height (Pérez Gómez et al 2018 and Alvarez Fanjul et al., 2019). More details and a full scientific evaluation can be found in the CMEMS Ocean State report (Alvarez Fanjul et al., 2019). '''CONTEXT''' The Sea Surface Temperature is one of the Essential Ocean Variables, hence the monitoring of this variable is of key importance, since its variations can affect the ocean circulation, marine ecosystems, and ocean-atmosphere exchange processes. As the oceans continuously interact with the atmosphere, trends of sea surface temperature can also have an effect on the global climate. In recent decades (from mid ‘80s) the Mediterranean Sea showed a trend of increasing temperatures (Ducrocq et al., 2016), which has been observed also by means of the CMEMS SST_MED_SST_L4_REP_OBSERVATIONS_010_021 satellite product and reported in the following CMEMS OMI: MEDSEA_OMI_TEMPSAL_sst_area_averaged_anomalies and MEDSEA_OMI_TEMPSAL_sst_trend. The Mediterranean Sea is a semi-enclosed sea characterized by an annual average surface temperature which varies horizontally from ~14°C in the Northwestern part of the basin to ~23°C in the Southeastern areas. Large-scale temperature variations in the upper layers are mainly related to the heat exchange with the atmosphere and surrounding oceanic regions. The Mediterranean Sea annual 99th percentile presents a significant interannual and multidecadal variability with a significant increase starting from the 80’s as shown in Marbà et al. (2015) which is also in good agreement with the multidecadal change of the mean SST reported in Mariotti et al. (2012). Moreover the spatial variability of the SST 99th percentile shows large differences at regional scale (Darmariaki et al., 2019; Pastor et al. 2018). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The Mediterranean mean Sea Surface Temperature 99th percentile evaluated in the period 1987-2019 (upper panel) presents highest values (~ 28-30 °C) in the eastern Mediterranean-Levantine basin and along the Tunisian coasts especially in the area of the Gulf of Gabes, while the lowest (~ 23–25 °C) are found in the Gulf of Lyon (a deep water formation area), in the Alboran Sea (affected by incoming Atlantic waters) and the eastern part of the Aegean Sea (an upwelling region). These results are in agreement with previous findings in Darmariaki et al. (2019) and Pastor et al. (2018) and are consistent with the ones presented in CMEMS OSR3 (Alvarez Fanjul et al., 2019) for the period 1993-2016. The 2020 Sea Surface Temperature 99th percentile anomaly map (bottom panel) shows a general positive pattern up to +3°C in the North-West Mediterranean area while colder anomalies are visible in the Gulf of Lion and North Aegean Sea . This Ocean Monitoring Indicator confirms the continuous warming of the SST and in particular it shows that the year 2020 is characterized by an overall increase of the extreme Sea Surface Temperature values in almost the whole domain with respect to the reference period. This finding can be probably affected by the different dataset used to evaluate this anomaly map: the 2020 Sea Surface Temperature 99th percentile derived from the Near Real Time Analysis product compared to the mean (1987-2019) Sea Surface Temperature 99th percentile evaluated from the Reanalysis product which, among the others, is characterized by different atmospheric forcing). Note: The key findings will be updated annually in November, in line with OMI evolutions. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00266
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'''Short description:''' The Mean Dynamic Topography MDT-CMEMS_2024_EUR is an estimate of the mean over the 1993-2012 period of the sea surface height above geoid for the European Seas. This is consistent with the reference time period also used in the SSALTO DUACS products '''DOI (product) :''' https://doi.org/10.48670/mds-00337
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'''Short description:''' This product provides daily (nighttime), gap-free (Level-4, L4) maps of foundation Sea Surface Temperature (SST) - that is, the SST free from diurnal warming - over the Mediterranean Sea, at high (HR, 1/16°) and ultra-high (UHR, 1/100°) spatial resolutions, covering the period from 2008 to present. Each map represents nighttime SST values (centered at 00:00 UTC) and is produced by the Italian National Research Council – Institute of Marine Sciences (CNR-ISMAR). L4 maps are generated by selecting only the highest-quality SST observations from upstream Level-2 (L2) data acquired within a short local nighttime window, in order to minimize cloud contamination and avoid the effects of the diurnal cycle. The main L2 sources currently ingested include SLSTR from Sentinel-3A and -3B, VIIRS from NOAA-21, NOAA-20, and Suomi-NPP, AVHRR from Metop-B and -C, and SEVIRI. A two-step algorithm allows to interpolate SST data at high and ultra-high spatial resolution, applying statistical techniques (Buongiorno Nardelli et al., 2013; Buongiorno Nardelli et al., 2015). Additionally, from 2024 onwards, an improved first-guess field has been used in the generation of the MED UHR L4 data, enhancing the product's spatial resolution of SST features and the accuracy of SST gradients via machine learning techniques (Fanelli et al., 2024). '''DOI (product) :''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00172
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''' Short description: ''' For the Mediterranean Sea - the CNR diurnal sub-skin Sea Surface Temperature (SST) product provides daily gap-free (L4) maps of hourly mean sub-skin SST at 1/16° (0.0625°) horizontal resolution over the CMEMS Mediterranean Sea (MED) domain, by combining infrared satellite and model data (Marullo et al., 2014). The implementation of this product takes advantage of the consolidated operational SST processing chains that provide daily mean SST fields over the same basin (Buongiorno Nardelli et al., 2013). The sub-skin temperature is the temperature at the base of the thermal skin layer and it is equivalent to the foundation SST at night, but during daytime it can be significantly different under favorable (clear sky and low wind) diurnal warming conditions. The sub-skin SST L4 product is created by combining geostationary satellite observations aquired from SEVIRI and model data (used as first-guess) aquired from the CMEMS MED Monitoring Forecasting Center (MFC). This approach takes advantage of geostationary satellite observations as the input signal source to produce hourly gap-free SST fields using model analyses as first-guess. The resulting SST anomaly field (satellite-model) is free, or nearly free, of any diurnal cycle, thus allowing to interpolate SST anomalies using satellite data acquired at different times of the day (Marullo et al., 2014). [https://help.marine.copernicus.eu/en/articles/4444611-how-to-cite-or-reference-copernicus-marine-products-and-services How to cite] '''DOI (product) :''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00170
Catalogue PIGMA