MOI-OMI-SERVICE
Type of resources
Topics
Keywords
Contact for the resource
Provided by
Years
Formats
Update frequencies
-
'''DEFINITION''' The temporal evolution of thermosteric sea level in an ocean layer is obtained from an integration of temperature driven ocean density variations, which are subtracted from a reference climatology to obtain the fluctuations from an average field. The regional thermosteric sea level values are then averaged from 60°S-60°N aiming to monitor interannual to long term global sea level variations caused by temperature driven ocean volume changes through thermal expansion as expressed in meters (m). '''CONTEXT''' The global mean sea level is reflecting changes in the Earth’s climate system in response to natural and anthropogenic forcing factors such as ocean warming, land ice mass loss and changes in water storage in continental river basins. Thermosteric sea-level variations result from temperature related density changes in sea water associated with volume expansion and contraction. Global thermosteric sea level rise caused by ocean warming is known as one of the major drivers of contemporary global mean sea level rise (Cazenave et al., 2018; Oppenheimer et al., 2019). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' Since the year 2005 the upper (0-2000m) near-global (60°S-60°N) thermosteric sea level rises at a rate of 1.3±0.2 mm/year. Note: The key findings will be updated annually in November, in line with OMI evolutions. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00240
-
'''DEFINITION''' Volume transport across lines are obtained by integrating the volume fluxes along some selected sections and from top to bottom of the ocean. The values are computed from models’ daily output. The mean value over a reference period (1993-2014) and over the last full year are provided for the ensemble product and the individual reanalysis, as well as the standard deviation for the ensemble product over the reference period (1993-2014). The values are given in Sverdrup (Sv). '''CONTEXT''' The ocean transports heat and mass by vertical overturning and horizontal circulation, and is one of the fundamental dynamic components of the Earth’s energy budget (IPCC, 2013). There are spatial asymmetries in the energy budget resulting from the Earth’s orientation to the sun and the meridional variation in absorbed radiation which support a transfer of energy from the tropics towards the poles. However, there are spatial variations in the loss of heat by the ocean through sensible and latent heat fluxes, as well as differences in ocean basin geometry and current systems. These complexities support a pattern of oceanic heat transport that is not strictly from lower to high latitudes. Moreover, it is not stationary and we are only beginning to unravel its variability. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The mean transports estimated by the ensemble global reanalysis are comparable to estimates based on observations; the uncertainties on these integrated quantities are still large in all the available products. At Drake Passage, the multi-product approach (product no. 2.4.1) is larger than the value (130 Sv) of Lumpkin and Speer (2007), but smaller than the new observational based results of Colin de Verdière and Ollitrault, (2016) (175 Sv) and Donohue (2017) (173.3 Sv). Note: The key findings will be updated annually in November, in line with OMI evolutions. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00247
-
'''DEFINITION''' Based on daily, global climate sea surface temperature (SST) analyses generated by the European Space Agency (ESA) SST Climate Change Initiative (CCI) and the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) (Merchant et al., 2019; product SST-GLO-SST-L4-REP-OBSERVATIONS-010-024). Analysis of the data was based on the approach described in Mulet et al. (2018) and is described and discussed in Good et al. (2020). The processing steps applied were: 1. The daily analyses were averaged to create monthly means. 2. A climatology was calculated by averaging the monthly means over the period 1993 - 2014. 3. Monthly anomalies were calculated by differencing the monthly means and the climatology. 4. An area averaged time series was calculated by averaging the monthly fields over the globe, with each grid cell weighted according to its area. 5. The time series was passed through the X11 seasonal adjustment procedure, which decomposes the time series into a residual seasonal component, a trend component and errors (e.g., Pezzulli et al., 2005). The trend component is a filtered version of the monthly time series. 6. The slope of the trend component was calculated using a robust method (Sen 1968). The method also calculates the 95% confidence range in the slope. '''CONTEXT''' Sea surface temperature (SST) is one of the Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) defined by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) as being needed for monitoring and characterising the state of the global climate system (GCOS 2010). It provides insight into the flow of heat into and out of the ocean, into modes of variability in the ocean and atmosphere, can be used to identify features in the ocean such as fronts and upwelling, and knowledge of SST is also required for applications such as ocean and weather prediction (Roquet et al., 2016). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' Over the period 1993 to 2021, the global average linear trend was 0.015 ± 0.001°C / year (95% confidence interval). 2021 is nominally the sixth warmest year in the time series. Aside from this trend, variations in the time series can be seen which are associated with changes between El Niño and La Niña conditions. For example, peaks in the time series coincide with the strong El Niño events that occurred in 1997/1998 and 2015/2016 (Gasparin et al., 2018). '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00242
-
'''DEFINITION''' Heat transport across lines are obtained by integrating the heat fluxes along some selected sections and from top to bottom of the ocean. The values are computed from models’ daily output. The mean value over a reference period (1993-2014) and over the last full year are provided for the ensemble product and the individual reanalysis, as well as the standard deviation for the ensemble product over the reference period (1993-2014). The values are given in PetaWatt (PW). '''CONTEXT''' The ocean transports heat and mass by vertical overturning and horizontal circulation, and is one of the fundamental dynamic components of the Earth’s energy budget (IPCC, 2013). There are spatial asymmetries in the energy budget resulting from the Earth’s orientation to the sun and the meridional variation in absorbed radiation which support a transfer of energy from the tropics towards the poles. However, there are spatial variations in the loss of heat by the ocean through sensible and latent heat fluxes, as well as differences in ocean basin geometry and current systems. These complexities support a pattern of oceanic heat transport that is not strictly from lower to high latitudes. Moreover, it is not stationary and we are only beginning to unravel its variability. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The mean transports estimated by the ensemble global reanalysis are comparable to estimates based on observations; the uncertainties on these integrated quantities are still large in all the available products. Note: The key findings will be updated annually in November, in line with OMI evolutions. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00245
-
'''DEFINITION''' Significant wave height (SWH), expressed in metres, is the average height of the highest one-third of waves. This OMI provides time series of seasonal mean and extreme SWH values in three oceanic regions as well as their trends from 2002 to 2020, computed from the reprocessed global L4 SWH product (WAVE_GLO_PHY_SWH_L4_MY_014_007). The extreme SWH is defined as the 95th percentile of the daily maximum of SWH over the chosen period and region. The 95th percentile represents the value below which 95% of the data points fall, indicating higher wave heights than usual. The mean and the 95th percentile of SWH are calculated for two seasons of the year to take into account the seasonal variability of waves (January, February, and March, and July, August, and September) and are in m while the trends are in cm/yr. '''CONTEXT''' Grasping the nature of global ocean surface waves, their variability, and their long-term interannual shifts is essential for climate research and diverse oceanic and coastal applications. The sixth IPCC Assessment Report underscores the significant role waves play in extreme sea level events (Mentaschi et al., 2017), flooding (Storlazzi et al., 2018), and coastal erosion (Barnard et al., 2017). Additionally, waves impact ocean circulation and mediate interactions between air and sea (Donelan et al., 1997) as well as sea-ice interactions (Thomas et al., 2019). Studying these long-term and interannual changes demands precise time series data spanning several decades. Until now, such records have been available only from global model reanalyses or localised in situ observations. While buoy data are valuable, they offer limited local insights and are especially scarce in the southern hemisphere. In contrast, altimeters deliver global, high-quality measurements of significant wave heights (SWH) (Gommenginger et al., 2002). The growing satellite record of SWH now facilitates more extensive global and long-term analyses. By using SWH data from a multi-mission altimetric product from 2002 to 2020, we can calculate global mean SWH and extreme SWH and evaluate their trends. '''KEY FINDINGS''' Over the period from 2002 to 2020, positive trends in both Significant Wave Height (SWH) and extreme SWH are mostly found in the southern hemisphere. The 95th percentile of wave heights (q95), increases more rapidly than the average values, indicating that extreme waves are growing faster than the average wave height. In the North Atlantic, SWH has increased in summertime (July August September) and decreased during the wintertime: the trend for the 95th percentile SWH is decreasing by 2.1 ± 3.3 cm/year, while the mean SWH shows a decreasing trend of 2.2 ± 1.76 cm/year. In the south of Australia, in boreal winter, the 95th percentile SWH is increasing at a rate of 2.6 ± 1.5 cm/year (a), with the mean SWH increasing by 0.7 ± 0.64 cm/year (b). Finally, in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, also in boreal winter, the 95th percentile SWH trend is 3.2 ± 2.15 cm/year (a) and the mean SWH trend is 1.4 ± 0.82 cm/year (b). This variation highlights that waves evolve differently across different basins and seasons, illustrating the complex and region-specific nature of wave height trends. A full discussion regarding this OMI can be found in A. Laloue et al. (2024). '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/mds-00352
-
'''DEFINITION''' The global yearly ocean CO2 sink represents the ocean uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere computed over the whole ocean. It is expressed in PgC per year. The ocean monitoring index is presented for the period 1985 to year-1. The yearly estimate of the ocean CO2 sink corresponds to the mean of a 100-member ensemble of CO2 flux estimates (Chau et al. 2022). The range of an estimate with the associated uncertainty is then defined by the empirical 68% interval computed from the ensemble. '''CONTEXT''' Since the onset of the industrial era in 1750, the atmospheric CO2 concentration has increased from about 277±3 ppm (Joos and Spahni, 2008) to 412.44±0.1 ppm in 2020 (Dlugokencky and Tans, 2020). By 2011, the ocean had absorbed approximately 28 ± 5% of all anthropogenic CO2 emissions, thus providing negative feedback to global warming and climate change (Ciais et al., 2013). The ocean CO2 sink is evaluated every year as part of the Global Carbon Budget (Friedlingstein et al. 2022). The uptake of CO2 occurs primarily in response to increasing atmospheric levels. The global flux is characterized by a significant variability on interannual to decadal time scales largely in response to natural climate variability (e.g., ENSO) (Friedlingstein et al. 2022, Chau et al. 2022). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The rate of change of the integrated yearly surface downward flux has increased by 0.04±0.03e-1 PgC/yr2 over the period 1985 to year-1. The yearly flux time series shows a plateau in the 90s followed by an increase since 2000 with a growth rate of 0.06±0.04e-1 PgC/yr2. In 2021 (resp. 2020), the global ocean CO2 sink was 2.41±0.13 (resp. 2.50±0.12) PgC/yr. The average over the full period is 1.61±0.10 PgC/yr with an interannual variability (temporal standard deviation) of 0.46 PgC/yr. In order to compare these fluxes to Friedlingstein et al. (2022), the estimate of preindustrial outgassing of riverine carbon of 0.61 PgC/yr, which is in between the estimate by Jacobson et al. (2007) (0.45±0.18 PgC/yr) and the one by Resplandy et al. (2018) (0.78±0.41 PgC/yr) needs to be added. A full discussion regarding this OMI can be found in section 2.10 of the Ocean State Report 4 (Gehlen et al., 2020) and in Chau et al. (2022). '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00223
-
'''DEFINITION''' Estimates of Ocean Heat Content (OHC) are obtained from integrated differences of the measured temperature and a climatology along a vertical profile in the ocean (von Schuckmann et al., 2018). The regional OHC values are then averaged from 60°S-60°N aiming i) to obtain the mean OHC as expressed in Joules per meter square (J/m2) to monitor the large-scale variability and change. ii) to monitor the amount of energy in the form of heat stored in the ocean (i.e. the change of OHC in time), expressed in Watt per square meter (W/m2). Ocean heat content is one of the six Global Climate Indicators recommended by the World Meterological Organisation for Sustainable Development Goal 13 implementation (WMO, 2017). '''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 ocean shapes our perspectives for the future (von Schuckmann et al., 2020). Variations in OHC can induce changes in ocean stratification, currents, sea ice and ice shelfs (IPCC, 2019; 2021); they set time scales and dominate Earth system adjustments to climate variability and change (Hansen et al., 2011); they are a key player in ocean-atmosphere interactions and sea level change (WCRP, 2018) and they can impact marine ecosystems and human livelihoods (IPCC, 2019). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' Since the year 2005, the upper (0-700m) near-global (60°S-60°N) ocean warms at a rate of 0.6 ± 0.1 W/m2. Note: The key findings will be updated annually in November, in line with OMI evolutions. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00234
-
'''DEFINITION''' Oligotrophic subtropical gyres are regions of the ocean with low levels of nutrients required for phytoplankton growth and low levels of surface chlorophyll-a whose concentration can be quantified through satellite observations. The gyre boundary has been defined using a threshold value of 0.15 mg m-3 chlorophyll for the Atlantic gyres (Aiken et al. 2016), and 0.07 mg m-3 for the Pacific gyres (Polovina et al. 2008). The area inside the gyres for each month is computed using monthly chlorophyll data from which the monthly climatology is subtracted to compute anomalies. A gap filling algorithm has been utilized to account for missing data. Trends in the area anomaly are then calculated for the entire study period (September 1997 to December 2021). '''CONTEXT''' Oligotrophic gyres of the oceans have been referred to as ocean deserts (Polovina et al. 2008). They are vast, covering approximately 50% of the Earth’s surface (Aiken et al. 2016). Despite low productivity, these regions contribute significantly to global productivity due to their immense size (McClain et al. 2004). Even modest changes in their size can have large impacts on a variety of global biogeochemical cycles and on trends in chlorophyll (Signorini et al. 2015). Based on satellite data, Polovina et al. (2008) showed that the areas of subtropical gyres were expanding. The Ocean State Report (Sathyendranath et al. 2018) showed that the trends had reversed in the Pacific for the time segment from January 2007 to December 2016. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The trend in the North Atlantic gyre area for the 1997 Sept – 2021 December period was positive, with a 0.14% year-1 increase in area relative to 2000-01-01 values. This trend has decreased compared with the 1997-2019 trend of 0.39%, and is no longer statistically significant (p>0.05). During the 1997 Sept – 2021 December period, the trend in chlorophyll concentration was negative (-0.21% year-1) inside the North Atlantic gyre relative to 2000-01-01 values. This is a slightly lower rate of change compared with the -0.24% trend for the 1997-2020 period but is still statistically significant (p<0.05). '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00226
-
'''DEFINITION''' Estimates of Ocean Heat Content (OHC) are obtained from integrated differences of the measured temperature and a climatology along a vertical profile in the ocean (von Schuckmann et al., 2018). The regional OHC values are then averaged from 60°S-60°N aiming i) to obtain the mean OHC as expressed in Joules per meter square (J/m2) to monitor the large-scale variability and change. ii) to monitor the amount of energy in the form of heat stored in the ocean (i.e. the change of OHC in time), expressed in Watt per square meter (W/m2). Ocean heat content is one of the six Global Climate Indicators recommended by the World Meterological Organisation for Sustainable Development Goal 13 implementation (WMO, 2017). '''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 ocean shapes our perspectives for the future (von Schuckmann et al., 2020). Variations in OHC can induce changes in ocean stratification, currents, sea ice and ice shelfs (IPCC, 2019; 2021); they set time scales and dominate Earth system adjustments to climate variability and change (Hansen et al., 2011); they are a key player in ocean-atmosphere interactions and sea level change (WCRP, 2018) and they can impact marine ecosystems and human livelihoods (IPCC, 2019). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' Since the year 2005, the upper (0-2000m) near-global (60°S-60°N) ocean warms at a rate of 1.0 ± 0.1 W/m2. Note: The key findings will be updated annually in November, in line with OMI evolutions. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00235
-
'''DEFINITION''' The ocean monitoring indicator on mean sea level is derived from the DUACS delayed-time (DT-2021 version, “my” (multi-year) dataset used when available, “myint” (multi-year interim) used after) sea level anomaly maps from satellite altimetry based on a stable number of altimeters (two) in the satellite constellation. These products are distributed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service and by the Copernicus Marine Service (SEALEVEL_GLO_PHY_CLIMATE_L4_MY_008_057). The time series of area averaged anomalies correspond to the area average of the maps in the Global Ocean weighted by the cosine of the latitude (to consider the changing area in each grid with latitude) and by the proportion of ocean in each grid (to consider the coastal areas). The time series are corrected from global TOPEX-A instrumental drift (WCRP Global Sea Level Budget Group, 2018) and global GIA correction of -0.3mm/yr (common global GIA correction, see Spada, 2017). The time series are adjusted for seasonal annual and semi-annual signals and low-pass filtered at 6 months. Then, the trends/accelerations are estimated on the time series using ordinary least square fit. The trend uncertainty of 0.3 mm/yr is provided at 90% confidence interval using altimeter error budget (Guérou et al., 2022). This estimate only considers errors related to the altimeter observation system (i.e., orbit determination errors, geophysical correction errors and inter-mission bias correction errors). The presence of the interannual signal can strongly influence the trend estimation depending on the period considered (Wang et al., 2021; Cazenave et al., 2014). The uncertainty linked to this effect is not considered. '''CONTEXT''' Change in mean sea level is an essential indicator of our evolving climate, as it reflects both the thermal expansion of the ocean in response to its warming and the increase in ocean mass due to the melting of ice sheets and glaciers(WCRP Global Sea Level Budget Group, 2018). According to the recent IPCC 6th assessment report (IPCC WGI, 2021), global mean sea level (GMSL) increased by 0.20 [0.15 to 0.25] m over the period 1901 to 2018 with a rate of rise that has accelerated since the 1960s to 3.7 [3.2 to 4.2] mm/yr for the period 2006–2018. Human activity was very likely the main driver of observed GMSL rise since 1970 (IPCC WGII, 2021). The weight of the different contributions evolves with time and in the recent decades the mass change has increased, contributing to the on-going acceleration of the GMSL trend (IPCC, 2022a; Legeais et al., 2020; Horwath et al., 2022). The adverse effects of floods, storms and tropical cyclones, and the resulting losses and damage, have increased as a result of rising sea levels, increasing people and infrastructure vulnerability and food security risks, particularly in low-lying areas and island states (IPCC, 2022b). Adaptation and mitigation measures such as the restoration of mangroves and coastal wetlands, reduce the risks from sea level rise (IPCC, 2022c). '''KEY FINDINGS''' Over the [1993/01/01, 2023/07/06] period, global mean sea level rises at a rate of 3.4 ± 0.3 mm/year. This trend estimation is based on the altimeter measurements corrected from the Topex-A drift at the beginning of the time series (Legeais et al., 2020) and global GIA correction (Spada, 2017) to consider the ongoing movement of land. The observed global trend agrees with other recent estimates (Oppenheimer et al., 2019; IPCC WGI, 2021). About 30% of this rise can be attributed to ocean thermal expansion (WCRP Global Sea Level Budget Group, 2018; von Schuckmann et al., 2018), 60% is due to land ice melt from glaciers and from the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. The remaining 10% is attributed to changes in land water storage, such as soil moisture, surface water and groundwater. From year to year, the global mean sea level record shows significant variations related mainly to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (Cazenave and Cozannet, 2014). '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00237