'''This product has been archived''' For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu '''Short description:''' The Global Ocean Satellite monitoring and marine ecosystem study group (GOS) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), in Rome, distributes Level-4 product including the daily interpolated chlorophyll field with no data voids starting from the multi-sensor (MODIS-Aqua, NOAA-20-VIIRS, NPP-VIIRS, Sentinel3A-OLCI), the monthly averaged chlorophyll concentration for the multi-sensor and climatological fields, all at 1 km resolution. Chlorophyll field are obtained by means of the Mediterranean regional algorithms: an updated version of the MedOC4 (Case 1 waters, Volpe et al., 2019, with new coefficients) and AD4 (Case 2 waters, Berthon and Zibordi, 2004). Discrimination between the two water types is performed by comparing the satellite spectrum with the average water type spectral signature from in situ measurements for both water types. Reference insitu dataset is MedBiOp (Volpe et al., 2019) where pure Case II spectra are selected using a k-mean cluster analysis (Melin et al., 2015). Merging of Case I and Case II information is performed estimating the Mahalanobis distance between the observed and reference spectra and using it as weight for the final merged value. The interpolated gap-free Level-4 Chl concentration is estimated by means of a modified version of the DINEOF algorithm by GOS (Volpe et al., 2018). DINEOF is an iterative procedure in which EOF are used to reconstruct the entire field domain. As first guess, it uses the SeaWiFS-derived daily climatological values at missing pixels and satellite observations at valid pixels. Monthly Level-4 dataset is the time averages of the L3 fields and includes the standard deviation and the number of observations in the monthly period of integration. SeaWiFS daily climatology provides reference for the calculation of Quality Indices (QI) for Chl observations. '''Processing information:''' Multi-sensor product is constituted by MODIS-AQUA, NOAA20-VIIRS, NPP-VIIRS and Sentinel3A-OLCI. For consistency with NASA L2 dataset, BRDF correction was applied to Sentinel3A-OLCI prior to band shifting and multi sensor merging. Single sensor NASA Level-2 data are destriped and then all Level-2 data are remapped at 1 km spatial resolution using cylindrical equirectangular projection. Afterwards, single sensor Rrs fields are band-shifted, over the SeaWiFS native bands (using the QAAv6 model, Lee et al., 2002) and merged with a technique aimed at smoothing the differences among different sensors. This technique is developed by The Global Ocean Satellite monitoring and marine ecosystem study group (GOS) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR, Rome). Then geophysical fields (i.e. chlorophyll) are estimated via state-of-the-art algorithms for better product quality. Level-4 includes both monthly time averages and the daily-interpolated fields. Time averages are computed on the delayed-time data. The interpolated product starts from the L3 products at 1 km resolution. At the first iteration, DINEOF procedure uses, as first guess for each of the missing pixels the relative daily climatological pixel. A procedure to smooth out spurious spatial gradients is applied to the daily merged image (observation and climatology). From the second iteration, the procedure uses, as input for the next one, the field obtained by the EOF calculation, using only a number of modes: that is, at the second round, only the first two modes, at the third only the first three, and so on. At each iteration, the same smoothing procedure is applied between EOF output and initial observations. The procedure stops when the variance explained by the current EOF mode exceeds that of noise. The entire data set is consistent and processed in one-shot mode (with an unique software version and identical configurations). For the climatology Rrs data are derived from the latest SeaWiFS NASA reprocessing (R2018.0) and converted to chlorophyll concentrations with the same algorithm as the one used for other L4 and/or L3 products. '''Description of observation methods/instruments:''' Ocean color technique exploits the emerging electromagnetic radiation from the sea surface in different wavelengths. The spectral variability of this signal defines the so called ocean color which is affected by the presence of phytoplankton. '''Quality / Accuracy / Calibration information:''' A detailed description of both the cal/val and a more in depth view of the method is given in QUID-009-038to045-071-073-078-079-095-096.pdf over Copernicus web portal. '''Suitability, Expected type of users / uses:''' This product is meant for use for educational purposes and for the managing of the marine safety, marine resources, marine and coastal environment and for climate and seasonal studies. '''Dataset names:''' *dataset-oc-med-chl-multi-l4-chl_1km_monthly-rep-v02 *dataset-oc-med-chl-multi-l4-interp_1km_daily-rep *dataset-oc-med-chl-seawifs-l4-chl_1km_daily-climatology-v02 '''Files format:''' *CF-1.4 *INSPIRE compliant. '''DOI (product) :''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00114

'''Short description:''' The Reprocessed (REP) Mediterranean (MED) dataset provides a stable and consistent long-term Sea Surface Temperature (SST) time series over the Mediterranean Sea (and the adjacent North Atlantic box) developed for climate applications. This product consists of daily (nighttime), optimally interpolated (L4), satellite-based estimates of the foundation SST (namely, the temperature free, or nearly-free, of any diurnal cycle) at 0.05° resolution grid covering the period from 1st January 1981 to present (approximately one month before real time). The MED-REP-L4 product is built from a consistent reprocessing of the collated level-3 (merged single-sensor, L3C) climate data record (CDR) v.3.0, provided by the ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) and covering the period up to 2021, and its interim extension (ICDR) that allows the regular temporal extension for 2022 onwards. '''DOI (product) :''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00173

'''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 MY 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 2021 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''' The coastal and shelf waters, especially between 30 and 400N that showed active oligotrophication flags for 2020 have reduced in 2021 and a reversal to eutrophic flags can be seen in places. Again, the eutrophication index is positive only for a small number of coastal locations just north of 40oN in 2021, however south of 40oN there has been a significant increase in eutrophic flags, particularly around the Azores. In general, the 2021 indicator map showed an increase in oligotrophic areas in the Northern Atlantic and an increase in eutrophic areas in the Southern Atlantic. 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. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00195

'''This product has been archived''' For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu '''Short description:''' The Global Ocean Satellite monitoring and marine ecosystem study group (GOS) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), in Rome operationally produces surface chlorophyll of the European region by merging the daily chlorophyll regional products over the Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. Single chlorophyll daily images are the Case I – Case II products, which are produced accounting for bio-optical differences in these two water types. The mosaic is built using the following datasets: • dataset-oc-atl-chl-multi_cci-l3-chl_1km_daily-rt-v01 for the North Atlantic Ocean • dataset-oc-bal-chl-modis_a-l3-nn_1km_daily-rt-v01 for the Baltic Sea • dataset-oc-bs-chl-multi-l3-chl_1km_daily-rt-v02 for the Black Sea • dataset-oc-med-chl-multi-l3-chl_1km_daily-rt-v02 for the Mediterranean Sea. '''Processing information:''' All details about the processing can be found in relevant product description: *OCEANCOLOUR_ATL_CHL_L3_NRT_OBSERVATIONS_009_036 *OCEANCOLOUR_BAL_CHL_L3_NRT_OBSERVATIONS_009_049 *OCEANCOLOUR_BS_CHL_L3_NRT_OBSERVATIONS_009_044 *OCEANCOLOUR_MED_CHL_L3_NRT_OBSERVATIONS_009_040 '''Description of observation methods/instruments:''' Ocean colour technique exploits the emerging electromagnetic radiation from the sea surface in different wavelengths. The spectral variability of this signal defines the so-called ocean colour which is affected by the presence of phytoplankton. '''Quality / Accuracy / Calibration information:''' A detailed description of the calibration and validation activities performed over this product can be found on the CMEMS web portal. '''Suitability, Expected type of users / uses:''' This product is meant for use for educational purposes and for the managing of the marine safety, marine resources, marine and coastal environment and for climate and seasonal studies. '''Dataset names:''' *dataset-oc-eur-chl-multi-l3-chl_1km_daily-rt-v02 '''DOI (product) :''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00095

'''This product has been archived''' For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu '''Short description:''' The Global Ocean Satellite monitoring and marine ecosystem study group (GOS) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), in Rome, distributes Level-4 product including the daily interpolated chlorophyll field with no data voids starting from the multi-sensor (MODIS-Aqua, NOAA-20-VIIRS, NPP-VIIRS, Sentinel3A-OLCI at 300m of resolution) (at 1 km resolution) and the monthly averaged chlorophyll concentration for the multi-sensor (at 1 km resolution) and Sentinel-OLCI Level-3 (at 300m resolution). Chlorophyll field are obtained by means of the Mediterranean regional algorithms: an updated version of the MedOC4 (Case 1 waters, Volpe et al., 2019, with new coefficients) and AD4 (Case 2 waters, Berthon and Zibordi, 2004). Discrimination between the two water types is performed by comparing the satellite spectrum with the average water type spectral signature from in situ measurements for both water types. Reference insitu dataset is MedBiOp (Volpe et al., 2019) where pure Case II spectra are selected using a k-mean cluster analysis (Melin et al., 2015). Merging of Case I and Case II information is performed estimating the Mahalanobis distance between the observed and reference spectra and using it as weight for the final merged value. The interpolated gap-free Level-4 Chl concentration is estimated by means of a modified version of the DINEOF algorithm by GOS (Volpe et al., 2018). DINEOF is an iterative procedure in which EOF are used to reconstruct the entire field domain. As first guess, it uses the SeaWiFS-derived daily climatological values at missing pixels and satellite observations at valid pixels. The other Level-4 dataset is the time averages of the L3 fields and includes the standard deviation and the number of observations in the monthly period of integration. '''Processing information:''' Multi-sensor products are constituted by MODIS-AQUA, NOAA20-VIIRS, NPP-VIIRS and Sentinel3A-OLCI. For consistency with NASA L2 dataset, BRDF correction was applied to Sentinel3A-OLCI prior to band shifting and multi sensor merging. Hence, the single sensor OLCI data set is also distributed after BRDF correction. Single sensor NASA Level-2 data are destriped and then all Level-2 data are remapped at 1 km spatial resolution (300m for Sentinel3A-OLCI) using cylindrical equirectangular projection. Afterwards, single sensor Rrs fields are band-shifted, over the SeaWiFS native bands (using the QAAv6 model, Lee et al., 2002) and merged with a technique aimed at smoothing the differences among different sensors. This technique is developed by The Global Ocean Satellite monitoring and marine ecosystem study group (GOS) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR, Rome). Then geophysical fields (i.e. chlorophyll, kd490, bbp, aph and adg) are estimated via state-of-the-art algorithms for better product quality. Level-4 includes both monthly time averages and the daily-interpolated fields. Time averages are computed on the delayed-time data. The interpolated product starts from the L3 products at 1 km resolution. At the first iteration, DINEOF procedure uses, as first guess for each of the missing pixels the relative daily climatological pixel. A procedure to smooth out spurious spatial gradients is applied to the daily merged image (observation and climatology). From the second iteration, the procedure uses, as input for the next one, the field obtained by the EOF calculation, using only a number of modes: that is, at the second round, only the first two modes, at the third only the first three, and so on. At each iteration, the same smoothing procedure is applied between EOF output and initial observations. The procedure stops when the variance explained by the current EOF mode exceeds that of noise. '''Description of observation methods/instruments:''' Ocean colour technique exploits the emerging electromagnetic radiation from the sea surface in different wavelengths. The spectral variability of this signal defines the so-called ocean colour which is affected by the pre+D2sence of phytoplankton. '''Quality / Accuracy / Calibration information:''' A detailed description of the calibration and validation activities performed over this product can be found on the CMEMS web portal. '''Suitability, Expected type of users / uses:''' This product is meant for use for educational purposes and for the managing of the marine safety, marine resources, marine and coastal environment and for climate and seasonal studies. '''Dataset names:''' *dataset-oc-med-chl-multi-l4-chl_1km_monthly-rt-v02 *dataset-oc-med-chl-multi-l4-interp_1km_daily-rt-v02 *dataset-oc-med-chl-olci-l4-chl_300m_monthly-rt-v02 '''Files format:''' *CF-1.4 *INSPIRE compliant '''DOI (product) :''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00113

'''DEFINITION:''' The regional annual chlorophyll anomaly is computed by subtracting a reference climatology (1997-2014) from the annual chlorophyll mean, on a pixel-by-pixel basis and in log10 space. Both the annual mean and the climatology are computed employing the regional products as distributed by CMEMS, derived by application of the regional chlorophyll algorithms over remote sensing reflectances (Rrs) provided by the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (ESA OC-CCI, Sathyendranath et al., 2018a). '''CONTEXT:''' Phytoplankton – and chlorophyll concentration as their proxy – respond rapidly to changes in their physical environment. In the North Atlantic region these changes present a distinct seasonality and are mostly determined by light and nutrient availability (González Taboada et al., 2014). By comparing annual mean values to a climatology, we effectively remove the seasonal signal at each grid point, while retaining information on potential events during the year (Gregg and Rousseaux, 2014). In particular, North Atlantic anomalies can then be correlated with oscillations in the Northern Hemisphere Temperature (Raitsos et al., 2014). Chlorophyll anomalies also provide information on the status of the North Atlantic oligotrophic gyre, where evidence of rapid gyre expansion has been found for the 1997-2012 period (Polovina et al. 2008, Aiken et al., 2017, Sathyendranath et al., 2018b). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS:''' The average chlorophyll anomaly in the North Atlantic is -0.02 log10(mg m-3), with a maximum value of 1.0 log10(mg m-3) and a minimum value of -1.0 log10(mg m-3). That is to say that, in average, the annual 2019 mean value is slightly lower (96%) than the 1997-2014 climatological value. A moderate increase in chlorophyll concentration was observed in 2019 over the Bay of Biscay and regions close to Iceland and Greenland, such as the Irminger Basin and the Denmark Strait. In particular, the annual average values for those areas are around 160% of the 1997-2014 average (anomalies > 0.2 log10(mg m-3)). While the significant negative anomalies reported for 2016-2017 (Sathyendranath et al., 2018c) in the area west of the Ireland and Scotland coasts continued to manifest, the Irish and North Seas returned to their normative regime during 2019, with anomalies close to zero. A change in the anomaly sign (positive to negative) was also detected for the West European Basin, with annual values as low as 60% of the 1997-2014 average. This reduction in chlorophyll might be matched with negative anomalies in sea level during the period, indicating a dominance of upwelling factors over stratification.

'''This product has been archived''' For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu '''DEFINITION''' This product includes the Mediterranean Sea satellite chlorophyll trend map from 1997 to 2020 based on regional chlorophyll reprocessed (REP) product as distributed by CMEMS OC-TAC. This dataset, derived from multi-sensor (SeaStar-SeaWiFS, AQUA-MODIS, NOAA20-VIIRS, NPP-VIIRS, Envisat-MERIS and Sentinel3A-OLCI) (at 1 km resolution) 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). The trend map is obtained by applying Colella et al. (2016) methodology, where the Mann-Kendall test (Mann, 1945; Kendall, 1975) and Sens’s method (Sen, 1968) are applied on deseasonalized monthly time series, as obtained from the X-11 technique (see e. g. Pezzulli et al. 2005), to estimate, trend magnitude and its significance. The trend is expressed in % per year that represents the relative changes (i.e., percentage) corresponding to the dimensional trend [mg m-3 y-1] with respect to the reference climatology (1997-2014). Only significant trends (p < 0.05) are included. '''CONTEXT''' Phytoplankton are key actors in the carbon cycle and, as such, recognised as an Essential Climate Variable (ECV). 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). The Mediterranean Sea is an oligotrophic basin, where chlorophyll concentration decreases following a specific gradient from West to East (Colella et al. 2016). The highest concentrations are observed in coastal areas and at the river mouths, where the anthropogenic pressure and nutrient loads impact on the eutrophication regimes (Colella et al. 2016). The the use of long-term time series of consistent, well-calibrated, climate-quality data record is crucial for detecting eutrophication. Furthermore, chlorophyll analysis also demands the use of robust statistical temporal decomposition techniques, in order to separate the long-term signal from the seasonal component of the time series. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' Chlorophyll trend in the Mediterranean Sea, for the period 1997-2020, is negative over most of the basin. Positive trend areas are visible only in the southern part of the western Mediterranean basin, in the Gulf of Lion, Rhode Gyre and partially along the Croatian coast of the Adriatic Sea. On average the trend in the Mediterranean Sea is about -0.5% per year. Nevertheless, as shown by Salgado-Hernanz et al. (2019) in their analysis (related to 1998-2014 satellite observations), there is not a clear difference between western and eastern basins of the Mediterranean Sea. In the Ligurian Sea, the trend switch to negative values, differing from the positive regime observed in the trend maps of both Colella et al. (2016) and Salgado-Hernanz et al. (2019), referred, respectively, to 1998-2009 and 1998-2014 time period, respectively. The waters offshore the Po River mouth show weak negative trend values, partially differing from the markable negative regime observed in the 1998-2009 period (Colella et al., 2016), and definitely moving from the positive trend observed by Salgado-Hernanz et al. (2019). Note: The key findings will be updated annually in November, in line with OMI evolutions. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00260

'''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

'''DEFINITION''' The regional annual chlorophyll anomaly is computed by subtracting a reference climatology (1997-2014) from the annual chlorophyll mean, on a pixel-by-pixel basis and in log10 space. Both the annual mean and the climatology are computed employing the regional products as distributed by CMEMS, derived by application of the regional chlorophyll algorithms over remote sensing reflectances (Rrs) produced by the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) using the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative processor (ESA OC-CCI, Sathyendranath et al., 2018a). '''CONTEXT''' Phytoplankton and chlorophyll concentration as their proxy respond rapidly to changes in their physical environment. In the Mediterranean Sea, these changes are seasonal and are mostly determined by light and nutrient availability (Gregg and Rousseaux, 2014). By comparing annual mean values to the climatology, we effectively remove the seasonal signal at each grid point, while retaining information on peculiar events during the year. In particular, chlorophyll anomalies in the Mediterranean Sea can then be correlated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (Basterretxea et al 2018, Colella et al 2016). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The 2019 average chlorophyll anomaly in the Mediterranean Sea is 1.02 mg m-3 (0.005 in log10 [mg m-3]), with a maximum value of 73 mg m-3 (1.86 log10 [mg m-3]) and a minimum value of 0.04 mg m-3 (-1.42 log10 [mg m-3]). The overall east west divided pattern reported in 2016, showing negative anomalies for the Western Mediterranean Sea and positive anomalies for the Levantine Sea (Sathyendranath et al., 2018b) is modified in 2019, with a widespread positive anomaly all over the eastern basin, which reaches the western one, up to the offshore water at the west of Sardinia. Negative anomaly values occur in the coastal areas of the basin and in some sectors of the Alboràn Sea. In the northwestern Mediterranean the values switch to be positive again in contrast to the negative values registered in 2017 anomaly. The North Adriatic Sea shows a negative anomaly offshore the Po river, but with weaker value with respect to the 2017 anomaly map.

'''DEFINITION''' The CMEMS MEDSEA_OMI_seastate_extreme_var_swh_mean_and_anomaly OMI indicator is based on the computation of the annual 99th percentile of Significant Wave Height (SWH) from model data. Two different CMEMS products are used to compute the indicator: The Iberia-Biscay-Ireland Multi Year Product (MEDSEA_MULTIYEAR_WAV_006_012) and the Analysis product (MEDSEA_ANALYSIS_FORECAST_WAV_006_017). Two parameters have been considered for this OMI: * Map of the 99th mean percentile: It is obtained from the Multy Year Product, the annual 99th percentile is computed for each year of the product. The percentiles are temporally averaged in the whole period (1993-2019). * Anomaly of the 99th percentile in 2020: The 99th percentile of the year 2020 is computed from the Analysis product. The anomaly is obtained by subtracting the mean percentile to the percentile in 2020. This indicator is aimed at monitoring the extremes of annual significant wave height and evaluate the spatio-temporal variability. The use of percentiles instead of annual maxima, makes this extremes study less affected by individual data. This approach was first successfully applied to 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 Álvarez-Fanjul et al., 2019). Further details and in-depth scientific evaluation can be found in the CMEMS Ocean State report (Álvarez- Fanjul et al., 2019). '''CONTEXT''' The sea state and its related spatio-temporal variability affect maritime activities and the physical connectivity between offshore waters and coastal ecosystems, impacting therefore on the biodiversity of marine protected areas (González-Marco et al., 2008; Savina et al., 2003; Hewitt, 2003). Over the last decades, significant attention has been devoted to extreme wave height events since their destructive effects in both the shoreline environment and human infrastructures have prompted a wide range of adaptation strategies to deal with natural hazards in coastal areas (Hansom et al., 2014). Complementarily, there is also an emerging question about the role of anthropogenic global climate change on present and future extreme wave conditions. The Mediterranean Sea is an almost enclosed basin where the complexity of its orographic characteristics deeply influences the atmospheric circulation at local scale, giving rise to strong regional wind regimes (Drobinski et al. 2018). Therefore, since waves are primarily driven by winds, high waves are present over most of the Mediterranean Sea and tend to reach the highest values where strong wind and long fetch (i.e. the horizontal distance over which wave-generating winds blow) are simultaneously present (Lionello et al. 2006). Specifically, as seen in figure and in agreement with other studies (e.g. Sartini et al. 2017), the highest values (5 – 6 m in figure, top) extend from the Gulf of Lion to the southwestern Sardinia through the Balearic Sea and are sustained southwards approaching the Algerian coast. They result from northerly winds dominant in the western Mediterranean Sea (Mistral or Tramontana), that become stronger due to orographic effects (Menendez et al. 2014), and act over a large area. In the Ionian Sea, the northerly Mistral wind is still the main cause of high waves (4-5 m in figure, top). In the Aegean and Levantine Seas, high waves (4-5 m in figure, top) are caused by the northerly Bora winds, prevalent in winter, and the northerly Etesian winds, prevalent in summer (Lionello et al. 2006; Chronis et al. 2011; Menendez et al. 2014). In general, northerly winds are responsible for most high waves in the Mediterranean (e.g. Chronis et al. 2011; Menendez et al. 2014). In agreement with figure (top), studies on the eastern Mediterranean and the Hellenic Seas have found that the typical wave height range in the Aegean Sea is similar to the one observed in the Ionian Sea despite the shorter fetches characterizing the former basin (Zacharioudaki et al. 2015). This is because of the numerous islands in the Aegean Sea which cause wind funneling and enhance the occurrence of extreme winds and thus of extreme waves (Kotroni et al. 2001). Special mention should be made of the high waves, sustained throughout the year, observed east and west of the island of Crete, i.e. around the exiting points of the northerly airflow in the Aegean Sea (Zacharioudaki et al. 2015). This airflow is characterized by consistently high magnitudes that are sustained during all seasons in contrast to other airflows in the Mediterranean Sea that exhibit a more pronounced seasonality (Chronis et al. 2011). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' In 2020 (bottom panel), higher-than-average values of the 99th percentile of Significant Wave Height are seen over most of the northern Mediterranean Sea, in the eastern Alboran Sea, and along stretches of the African coast (Tunisia, Libya and Egypt). In many cases they exceed the climatic standard deviation. Regions where the climatic standard deviation is exceeded twice are the European and African coast of the eastern Alboran Sea, a considerable part of the eastern Spanish coast, the Ligurian Sea and part of the east coast of France as well as areas of the southern Adriatic. These anomalies correspond to the maximum positive anomalies computed in the Mediterranean Sea for year 2020 with values that reach up to 1.1 m. Spatially constrained maxima are also found at other coastal stretches (e.g. Algeri, southeast Sardinia). Part of the positive anomalies found along the French and Spanish coast, including the coast of the Balearic Islands, can be associated with the wind storm “Gloria” (19/1 – 24/1) during which exceptional eastern winds originated in the Ligurian Sea and propagated westwards. The storm, which was of a particularly high intensity and long duration, caused record breaking wave heights in the region, and, in return, great damage to the coast (Amores et al., 2020; de Alfonso et al., 2021). Other storms that could have contributed to the positive anomalies observed in the western Mediterranean Sea include: storm Karine (25/2 – 5/4), which caused high waves from the eastern coast of Spain to the Balearic Islands (Copernicus, Climate Change Service, 2020); storm Bernardo (7/11 – 18/11) which also affected the Balearic islands and the Algerian coast and; storm Hervé (2/2 – 8/2) during which the highest wind gust was recorded at north Corsica (Wikiwand, 2021). In the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the medicane Ianos (14/9 – 21/9) may have contributed to the positive anomalies shown in the central Ionian Sea since this area coincides with the area of peak wave height values during the medicane (Copernicus, 2020a and Copernicus, 2020b). Otherwise, higher-than-average values in the figure are the result of severe, yet not unusual, wind events, which occurred during the year. Negative anomalies occur over most of the southern Mediterranean Sea, east of the Alboran Sea. The maximum negative anomalies reach about -1 m and are located in the southeastern Ionian Sea and west of the south part of mainland Greece as well as in coastal locations of the north and east Aegean They appear to be quite unusual since they are greater than two times the climatic standard deviation in the region. They could imply less severe southerly wind activity during 2020 (Drobinski et al., 2018). Note: The key findings will be updated annually in November, in line with OMI evolutions. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00262