Claudia Fratianni

The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service Ocean State Report

ABSTRACT The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) Ocean State Report (OSR) provides an annual report of the state of the global ocean and European regional seas for policy and decision-makers with the additional aim of increasing general public awareness about the status of, and changes in, the marine environment. The CMEMS OSR draws on expert analysis and provides a 3-D view (through reanalysis systems), a view from above (through remote-sensing data) and a direct view of the interior (through in situ measurements) of the global ocean and the European regional seas. The report is based on the unique CMEMS monitoring capabilities of the blue (hydrography, currents), white (sea ice) and green (e.g. Chlorophyll) marine environment. This first issue of the CMEMS OSR provides guidance on Essential Variables, large-scale changes and specific events related to the physical ocean state over the period 1993–2015. Principal findings of this first CMEMS OSR show a significant increase in global and regional sea levels, thermosteric expansion, ocean heat content, sea surface temperature and Antarctic sea ice extent and conversely a decrease in Arctic sea ice extent during the 1993–2015 period. During the year 2015 exceptionally strong large-scale changes were monitored such as, for example, a strong El Niño Southern Oscillation, a high frequency of extreme storms and sea level events in specific regions in addition to areas of high sea level and harmful algae blooms. At the same time, some areas in the Arctic Ocean experienced exceptionally low sea ice extent and temperatures below average were observed in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Mediterranean ocean forecasting system: First phase of implementation

Abstract The Mediterranean Forecasting System Pilot Project (1998-2001) has been completed and every week a ten days forecast is released on the Web ( http://www.cineca.it/mfspp ). This is realised with a networking of Near Real Time observing and modelling centres started within the project and working operationally from January 2000. The network consists of: 1) three data centres that provide in situ and satellite data for initialisation of model forecasts. The observations are released with a time delay of one to three days through the internet; 2) a meteorological data centre for the collection and transmission of atmospheric forcing fields; 3) a central modelling and data assimilation centre which executes the forecasts. The satellite data consist of sea level anomalies and sea surface temperatures (SST) while the in situ data are temperature profiles acquired on Voluntary Observing ship tracks at biweekly frequency. All these data are assimilated to produce an initial condition for the forecast that is coupled asynchronously to atmospheric forecast surface fields. Skill scores indicate that RMS forecast error is lower than RMS persistence error after the first day in all Mediterranean regions.

From weather to ocean predictions: an historical viewpoint

This paper reviews the historical development of concepts and practices in the science of ocean predictions. It begins with meteorology, which conducted the first forecasting experiment in 1950, followed by wind waves, and continuing with tidal and storm surge predictions to arrive at the first successful ocean mesoscale forecast in 1983. The work of Professor A. R. Robinson of Harvard University, who produced the first mesoscale ocean predictions for the deep ocean regions is documented for the first time. The scientific and technological developments that made accurate ocean predictions possible are linked with the gradual understanding of the importance of the oceanic mesoscales and their inclusion in the numerical models. Ocean forecasting developed first at the regional level, due to the relatively low computational requirements, but by the end of the 1990s, it was possible to produce global ocean uncoupled forecasts and coupled ocean-atmosphere seasonal forecasts.

Operational oceanography for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive: the case of the mixing indicator

ABSTRACT In this paper we show that operational oceanography products can be used to develop indicators as required by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). We present a mixing indicator that is calculated using MyOcean Marine Service reanalysis products. Seasonal climatology data of the Brunt–Väisäla frequency (BVF) were computed for 2001–2010 and the vertical mixing coefficient was defined. A vertical mixing indicator was then computed in order to differentiate between different mixing conditions depending on the seasons and differentiating between the shelf and the open ocean in the central Mediterranean Sea.