Inter-Annual Variability and Trends of Sea Level and Sea Surface Temperature in the Mediterranean Sea over the Last 25 Years

Mohamed, Bayoumy; Abdallah, Abdallah Mohamed; El-Din, Khaled Alam; Nagy, Hazem; Shaltout, Mohamed

doi:10.1007/s00024-019-02156-w

Cited by 59 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(73 reference statements)

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“…Ref. [27] also found a 0.036 • C/year warming trend for a 25-year series spanning from 1993 to 2017, along with a correlated and positive sea level trend. Studies of longer time series, like [28], calculated a 0.36 • C/decade warming for the global Mediterranean basin for the thirty-year series 1982-2012.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

A Warming Mediterranean: 38 Years of Increasing Sea Surface Temperature

2020

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The Mediterranean basin has been classified as a hot-spot for climate change. The Mediterranean Sea plays a fundamental regulatory role in the regional climate. We have analyzed the largest available and complete time series (1982–2019) of blended sea surface temperature (SST) data to study its seasonal cycle and look for a possible warming trend in the basin. From the analysis of the Mediterranean mean SST time series, a new temporal seasonal division is derived that differs from the one used in atmospheric climatology. Then, the SST time series were decomposed into their seasonal and trend components, and a consistent warming trend of 0.035 °C/year was obtained. The nature of this trend has been investigated, indicating a higher warming trend for both maximum and high/summer SST values than for the winter/colder ones. This reinforces the consistency of the SST increase since it is not only based on the presence of extreme values, but on a homogeneous basin global increase of high SST records as well. Although warming is found throughout the Mediterranean basin, the spatial variability found leads to the division of the basin into three distinct subareas regarding warming.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

A Warming Mediterranean: 38 Years of Increasing Sea Surface Temperature

2020

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“…The Mediterranean trends found here are consistent with the results (0.04 • C/year) obtained in [53] using a shorter (1986-2015) time series. Other recent trends' estimates provide values of 0.036 ± 0.003 • C/year from 1993 to 2017 [21], 0.036 ± 0.003 • C/year from 1982 to 2016 [22] and 0.035 ± 0.007 • C/year from 1982 to 2012 [20], over the Mediterranean Sea. Trends' estimates we found in the Mediterranean sub-basins and the adjacent Northeastern Atlantic box agree with previous findings, e.g., the value of 0.031 ± 0.007 • C/year from 1985 to 2007 in the western Mediterranean Sea [18], about 0.045 • C/year in the Aegean Sea [23] and about 0.025 • C/year in the Atlantic area near Gibraltar from 1985 to 2008 [54], about 0.033 • C/year in the Ionian Sea and about 0.042 • C/year in the Levantine basin from 1982 to 2012 [20].…”

Section: X11-trendsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Differences between these estimates are minimal, considering the different datasets used. Indeed, the authors of [20][21][22] used the gridded daily AVHRR data (version 2) with a 0.25 • latitude/longitude resolution, while [53] the previous version of the CMEMS Mediterranean dataset, at 4 × 4 km resolution. The sub-basins' description of the time evolution of the Mediterranean SST reflects the occurrence of a nonuniform spatial distribution of the trends, with lower values in the sub-basins closer to the Atlantic Ocean, namely the western Mediterranean and Ionian Seas, and higher values in the Levantine-Aegean Sea and the Adriatic Sea.…”

Section: X11-trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recently, using the same dataset, the authors of both [21] and [22] estimated a mean warming trend of~0.036 • C/year for the whole Mediterranean Sea, although looking at different periods: from 1993 to 2017 and from 1982 to 2016, respectively. The authors of [23] investigated decadal variability in the Mediterranean SST on a 24-year period , making use of a regionally optimized satellite-based SST dataset over the Mediterranean Sea [24] and in situ-based SST data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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New Evidence of Mediterranean Climate Change and Variability from Sea Surface Temperature Observations

et al. 2020

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Estimating long-term modifications of the sea surface temperature (SST) is crucial for evaluating the current state of the oceans and to correctly assess the impact of climate change at regional scales. In this work, we analyze SST variations within the Mediterranean Sea and the adjacent Northeastern Atlantic box (west of the Strait of Gibraltar) over the last 37 years, by using a satellite-based dataset from the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS). We found a mean warming trend of 0.041 ± 0.006 ∘ C/year over the whole Mediterranean Sea from 1982 to 2018. The trend has an uneven spatial pattern, with values increasing from 0.036 ± 0.006 ∘ C/year in the western basin to 0.048 ± 0.006 ∘ C/year in the Levantine–Aegean basin. The Northeastern Atlantic box and the Mediterranean show a similar trend until the late 1990s. Afterwards, the Mediterranean SST continues to increase, whereas the Northeastern Atlantic box shows no significant trend, until ~2015. The observed change in the Mediterranean Sea affects not only the mean trend but also the amplitude of the Mediterranean seasonal signal, with consistent relative increase and decrease of summer and winter mean values, respectively, over the period considered. The analysis of SST changes occurred during the “satellite era” is further complemented by reconstructions also based on direct in situ SST measurements, i.e., the Extended Reconstructed SST (ERSST) and the Hadley Centre Sea Ice and Sea Surface Temperature dataset (HadISST), which go back to the 19th century. The analysis of these longer time series, covering the last 165 years, indicates that the increasing Mediterranean trend, observed during the CMEMS operational period, is consistent with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), as it closely follows the last increasing period of AMO. This coincidence occurs at least until 2007, when the apparent onset of the decreasing phase of AMO is not seen in the Mediterranean SST evolution.

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“…Similar positive and negative rates before and after 2001 result for the (basin-average) steric component of sea level, which is correlated with Adriatic Sea level. For the northern sector of the Adriatic, rates of 4.25 ± 1.25 mm/year for the period 1993-2015 [69] and of 3.00 ± 0.53 mm/year for the period 1993-2018 [70] have been recently estimated.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Sea-Level Change along the Emilia-Romagna Coast from Tide Gauge and Satellite Altimetry

2020

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Coastal flooding and retreat are markedly enhanced by sea-level rise. Thus, it is crucial to determine the sea-level variation at the local scale to support coastal hazard assessment and related management policies. In this work we focus on sea-level change along the Emilia-Romagna coast, a highly urbanized, 130 km-long belt facing the northern Adriatic Sea, by analyzing data from three tide gauges (with data records in the last 25–10 years) and related closest grid points from CMEMS monthly gridded satellite altimetry. The results reveal that the rate of sea-level rise observed by altimetry is coherent along the coast (2.8 ± 0.5 mm/year) for the period 1993–2019 and that a negative acceleration of −0.3 ± 0.1 mm/year is present, in contrast with the global scale. Rates resulting from tide gauge time series analysis diverge from these values mainly as a consequence of a large and heterogeneous rate of subsidence in the region. Over the common timespan, altimetry and tide gauge data show very high correlation, although their comparison suffers from the short overlapping period between the two data sets. Nevertheless, their combined use allows assessment of the recent (last 25 years) sea-level change along the Emilia-Romagna coast and to discuss the role of different interacting processes in the determination of the local sea level.

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Inter-Annual Variability and Trends of Sea Level and Sea Surface Temperature in the Mediterranean Sea over the Last 25 Years

Cited by 59 publications

References 53 publications

A Warming Mediterranean: 38 Years of Increasing Sea Surface Temperature

A Warming Mediterranean: 38 Years of Increasing Sea Surface Temperature

New Evidence of Mediterranean Climate Change and Variability from Sea Surface Temperature Observations

Sea-Level Change along the Emilia-Romagna Coast from Tide Gauge and Satellite Altimetry

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