From 1 - 10 / 24
  • '''DEFINITION''' The ibi_omi_tempsal_sst_area_averaged_anomalies product for 2020 includes Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies, given as monthly mean time series starting on 1993 and averaged over the Iberia-Biscay-Irish Seas. The IBI SST OMI is built from the CMEMS Reprocessed European North West Shelf Iberai-Biscay-Irish Seas (SST_MED_SST_L4_REP_OBSERVATIONS_010_026, see e.g. the OMI QUID, http://marine.copernicus.eu/documents/QUID/CMEMS-OMI-QUID-ATL-SST.pdf), which provided the SSTs used to compute the evolution of SST anomalies over the European North West Shelf Seas. This reprocessed product consists of daily (nighttime) interpolated 0.05° grid resolution SST maps over the European North West Shelf Iberai-Biscay-Irish Seas built from the ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) (Merchant et al., 2019) and Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) initiatives. Anomalies are computed against the 1993-2014 reference period. '''CONTEXT''' Sea surface temperature (SST) is identified as Essential Climate Variable (GCOS 2010), as it is used to analyze and monitor climate variability and change (e.g. Deser et al., 2010). In addition, SST anomalies are used for the analysis of extreme events (marine heatwaves, Hobday et al., 2018). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The area-averaged trend in the SST anomalies in this region amounts to 0.010 ±0.001 °C/year over the period 1993-2020. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00256389.

  • '''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). '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00260

  • '''DEFINITION''' The subsurface salinity trends have been derived from regional reanalysis and forecast modelling results of the CMEMS BAL MFC group for the Baltic Sea (product references BALTICSEA_REANALYSIS_PHY_003_011). The salinity trend has been obtained through a linear fit for each time series of horizontally averaged (13 °E - 31 °E and 53 °N - 66 °N; excluding the Skagerrak strait) annual salinity and at each depth level (Mulet et al., 2018). '''CONTEXT''' The Baltic Sea is a brackish semi-enclosed sea in North-Eastern Europe. The surface salinity varies horizontally from ~10 near the Danish Straits down to ~2 at the northernmost and easternmost sub-basins of the Baltic Sea. The halocline, a vertical layer with rapid changes of salinity with depth that separates the well-mixed surface layer from the weakly stratified layer below, is located at the depth range of 60-80 meters (Matthäus, 1984). The bottom layer salinity below the halocline depth varies from 15 in the south down to 3 in the northern Baltic Sea (Väli et al., 2013). The long-term salinity is determined by net precipitation and river discharge as well as saline water inflows from the North Sea (BACCII Author Team, 2015). Long-term salinity decrease may reduce the occurrence and biomass of the Fucus vesiculosus - Idotea balthica association/symbiotic aggregations (Kotta et al., 2019). Changes in salinity and oxygen content affect the survival of the Baltic cod eggs (Raudsepp et al, 2019; von Dewitz et al., 2018). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The subsurface salinity over the 1993-2020 period shows no trend in the surface layer of 40-m. Then, the trend increases monotonically until the depth of 80-m, where it reaches the value of about 0.04 per year. Below that depth the salinity trend is uniform within the uncertainty limits. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00207

  • '''DEFINITION''' The subsurface temperature trends have been derived from regional reanalysis results for the Baltic Sea (product references BALTICSEA_REANALYSIS_PHY_003_011). Horizontal averaging has been conducted over the Baltic Sea domain (13 °E - 31 °E and 53 °N - 66 °N; excluding the Skagerrak strait). The temperature trend has been obtained through a linear fit for each time series of horizontally averaged annual temperature and at each depth level (Mulet et al., 2018). '''CONTEXT''' The Baltic Sea is a semi-enclosed sea in North-Eastern Europe. The temperature of the upper mixed layer of the Baltic Sea is characterized by a strong seasonal cycle driven by the annual course of solar radiation (Leppäranta and Myrberg, 2008). The maximum water temperatures in the upper layer are reached in July and August and the minimum during February, when the Baltic Sea becomes partially frozen (CMEMS OMI Baltic Sea Sea Ice Extent, CMEMS OMI Baltic Sea Sea Ice Volume). Seasonal thermocline, developing in the depth range of 10-30 m in spring, reaches its maximum strength in summer and is eroded in autumn. During autumn and winter the Baltic Sea is thermally mixed down to the permanent halocline in the depth range of 60-80 meters (Matthäus, 1984). The 20–50 m thick cold intermediate layer forms below the upper mixed layer in March and is observed until October within the 15-65 m depth range (Chubarenko and Stepanova, 2018; Liblik and Lips, 2011). The deep layers of the Baltic Sea are disconnected from the ventilated upper ocean layers, and temperature variations are predominantly driven by mixing processes and horizontal advection. A warming trend of the sea surface waters is positively correlated with the increasing trend of diffuse attenuation of light (Kd490) and satellite-detected chlorophyll concentration (Kahru et al., 2016). Temperature increase in the water column could accelerate oxygen consumption during organic matter oxidation (Savchuk, 2018). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The subsurface temperature over the 1993-2020 period shows warming trends of about 0.05 °C/year at all depths. The largest warming trend of 0.06 °C/year is recorded at the 20 m depth, which corresponds to seasonal thermocline. Similar positive trend is at the depth of 60-70 meters, which corresponds to the depth of the upper part of the permanent halocline. A positive trend in the sea surface waters has been detected since the 1990s (BACCII Author Team, 2015) as well as a decreasing trend of the start day of the spring phytoplankton bloom (Raudsepp et al., 2019; Kahru et al., 2016). From the measurements Savchuk (2018) has calculated the temperature trend of 0.04◦oC/year since 1979 on average in the deep layers (>60m) of the Baltic Proper. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00208

  • '''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 2020). '''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 South Pacific gyre area for the 1997 Sept – 2020 December period was positive, with a 0.16% increase in area relative to 2000-01-01 values. Note that this trend is slightly lower than the 0.24% change for the 1997-2019 period, with the sign of the trend remaining unchanged and is statistically significant (p<0.05). During the 1997 Sept – 2020 December period, the trend in chlorophyll concentration was positive (0.45% year-1) in the South Pacific gyre relative to 2000-01-01 values. This rate is double the rate of 0.15% year-1 for the 1997-2019 period and remains statistically significant (p<0.05). For 2016, the Ocean State Report (Sathyendranath et al. 2018) reported a large increase in gyre area in the Pacific Ocean (both North and South Pacific gyres), probably linked with the 2016 ENSO event which saw large decreases in chlorophyll in the Pacific Ocean. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00229

  • '''DEFINITION:''' Estimates of Arctic liquid Freshwater Content (FWC in meters) are obtained from integrated differences of the measured salinity and a reference salinity (set to 34.8) from the surface to the bottom per unit area in the Arctic region with a water depth greater than 500m as function of salinity (S), the vertical cell thickness of the dataset (dz) and the salinity reference (Sref). Waters saltier than the 34.8 reference are not included in the estimation. The regional FWC values from 1993 up to real time are then averaged aiming to: # obtain the mean FWC as expressed in cubic km (km3) # monitor the large-scale variability and change of liquid freshwater stored in the Arctic Ocean (i.e. the change of FWC in time). '''CONTEXT:''' The Arctic region is warming twice as fast as the global mean and its climate is undergoing unprecedented and drastic changes, affecting all the components of the Arctic system. Many of these changes affect the hydrological cycle. Monitoring the storage of freshwater in the Arctic region is essential for understanding the contemporary Earth system state and variability. Variations in Arctic freshwater can induce changes in ocean stratification. Exported southward downstream, these waters have potential future implications for global circulation and heat transport. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS:''' Since 1993, the Arctic Ocean freshwater has experienced a significant increase of 423 ± 39 km3/year. The year 2016 witnessed the highest freshwater content in the Artic since the last 24 years. Second half of 2016 and first half of 2017 show a substantial decrease of the FW storage. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00193

  • '''DEFINITION''' The ibi_omi_tempsal_sst_trend product includes the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) trend for the Iberia-Biscay-Irish Seas over the period 1993-2020, i.e. the rate of change (°C/year). This OMI is derived from the CMEMS REP ATL L4 SST product (SST_ATL_SST_L4_REP_OBSERVATIONS_010_026), see e.g. the OMI QUID, http://marine.copernicus.eu/documents/QUID/CMEMS-OMI-QUID-ATL-SST.pdf), which provided the SSTs used to compute the SST trend over the Iberia-Biscay-Irish Seas. This reprocessed product consists of daily (nighttime) interpolated 0.05° grid resolution SST maps built from the ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) (Merchant et al., 2019) and Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) initiatives. Trend analysis has been performed by using the X-11 seasonal adjustment procedure (see e.g. Pezzulli et al., 2005), which has the effect of filtering the input SST time series acting as a low bandpass filter for interannual variations. Mann-Kendall test and Sens’s method (Sen 1968) were applied to assess whether there was a monotonic upward or downward trend and to estimate the slope of the trend and its 95% confidence interval. '''CONTEXT''' Sea surface temperature (SST) is identified as Essential Climate Variable (GCOS 2010), as it is used to analyze and monitor climate variability and change (e.g. Deser et al., 2010). In addition, SST anomalies are used for the analysis of extreme events (marine heatwaves, Hobday et al., 2018). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' Over the period 1993-2020, most of the Iberia-Biscay-Irish Seas area shows overall surface warming, particularly in the northeastern part of the region. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00257

  • '''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 2020). '''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 – 2020 December period was positive, with a 0.39% year-1 increase in area relative to 2000-01-01 values. This trend has decreased compared with the 1997-2019 trend of 0.45%, and is statistically significant (p<0.05). During the 1997 Sept – 2020 December period, the trend in chlorophyll concentration was positive (0.24% year-1) inside the North Atlantic gyre relative to 2000-01-01 values. This time series extension has resulted in a reversal in the rate of change, compared with the -0.18% trend for the 1997-209 period and is statistically significant (p<0.05). '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00226

  • '''DEFINITION''' Net sea-ice volume and area transport through the openings Fram Strait between Spitsbergen and Greenland along 79°N, 20°W - 10°E (positive southward); northern Barents Sea between Svalbard and Franz Josef Land archipelagos along 80°N, 27°E - 60°E (positive southward); eastern Barents Sea between the Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land archipelagos along 60°E, 76°N - 80°N (positive westward). For further details, see Lien et al. (2021). '''CONTEXT''' The Arctic Ocean contains a large amount of freshwater, and the freshwater export from the Arctic to the North Atlantic influence the stratification, and, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (e.g., Aagaard et al., 1985). The Fram Strait represents the major gateway for freshwater transport from the Arctic Ocean, both as liquid freshwater and as sea ice (e.g., Vinje et al., 1998). The transport of sea ice through the Fram Strait is therefore important for the mass balance of the perennial sea-ice cover in the Arctic as it represents a large export of about 10% of the total sea ice volume every year (e.g., Rampal et al., 2011). Sea ice export through the Fram Strait has been found to explain a major part of the interannual variations in Arctic perennial sea ice volume changes (Ricker et al., 2018). The sea ice and associated freshwater transport to the Barents Sea has been suggested to be a driving mechanism for the presence of Arctic Water in the northern Barents Sea, and, hence, the presence of the Barents Sea Polar Front dividing the Barents Sea into a boreal and an Arctic part (Lind et al., 2018). In recent decades, the Arctic part of the Barents Sea has been giving way to an increasing boreal part, with large implications for the marine ecosystem and harvestable resources (e.g., Fossheim et al., 2015). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The sea-ice transport through the Fram Strait shows a distinct seasonal cycle in both sea ice area and volume transport, with a maximum in winter. Moreover, there is a significant, negative trend in the volume transport over the last two and a half decades, explained partly by reduced area transport. In the Barents Sea, a strong reduction of nearly 90% in average sea-ice thickness has diminished the sea-ice import from the Polar Basin (Lien et al., 2021). In both areas, the Fram Strait and the Barents Sea, the winds governed by the regional patterns of atmospheric pressure is an important driving force of temporal variations in sea-ice transport (e.g., Aaboe et al., 2021; Lien et al., 2021). '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00192

  • '''DEFINITION''' The northwestshelf_omi_tempsal_sst_trend product includes the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) trend for the European North West Shelf Seas over the period 1993-2020, i.e. the rate of change (°C/year). This OMI is derived from the CMEMS REP ATL L4 SST product (SST_ATL_SST_L4_REP_OBSERVATIONS_010_026), see e.g. the OMI QUID, http://marine.copernicus.eu/documents/QUID/CMEMS-OMI-QUID-ATL-SST.pdf, Mulet et al., 2018), which provided the SSTs used to compute the SST trend over the European North West Shelf Seas. This reprocessed product consists of daily (nighttime) interpolated 0.05° grid resolution SST maps built from the ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) (Merchant et al., 2019) and Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) initiatives. Trend analysis has been performed by using the X-11 seasonal adjustment procedure (see e.g. Pezzulli et al., 2005), which has the effect of filtering the input SST time series acting as a low bandpass filter for interannual variations. Mann-Kendall test and Sens’s method (Sen 1968) were applied to assess whether there was a monotonic upward or downward trend and to estimate the slope of the trend and its 95% confidence interval. '''CONTEXT ''' Sea surface temperature (SST) is a key climate variable due to its role for climate variability and change (Deser et al., 2010; IPCC, 2021). SST is then essential to monitor and characterise the state of the global climate system (GCOS 2010). Long-term SST variability, from interannual to (multi-)decadal timescales, provides insight into the slow variations/changes in SST, i.e. the temperature trend (e.g., Pezzulli et al., 2005). In addition, on shorter timescales, SST anomalies become an essential indicator for extreme events, as e.g. marine heatwaves (Hobday et al., 2018). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' Over the period 1993-2020, the European North West Shelf Seas area experiences overall surface warming, particularly in the eastern part of the area such as the Kattegat region. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00276