Increasingly hot temperatures in the Mediterranean: from 10 May the sea has been hit by a wave of heat that has raised the surface temperature by about 4 degrees compared to the average of the 1985-2005 period, with peaks exceeding 23 degrees. These are the first results of the CAREHeat project funded by the European Space Agency, in which Enea and Cnr participate for Italy. The project aims to develop new methodologies to predict and identify heat waves, understand their propagation and impacts on the environment, biodiversity and economic activities, such as fishing and aquaculture.
“The research activities began with the study of the heat wave currently affecting the Mediterranean Sea starting from the analysis of the available satellite data that first detected the thermal anomaly, with values comparable to the 2003 heat wave. “, underlines Salvatore Marullo of the Enea Laboratory of Climate Modeling and Impacts. “It is since the beginning of May that temperatures have been recorded in the Mediterranean area well above the seasonal average and also the first half of June was characterized by meteorological situations typical of the more advanced phases of the summer season”, he adds.
Starting from a description of the state of the art on the detection of the so-called MHW (Marine Heat Waves), the project aims to define the current knowledge gaps and the methods proposed for their overcoming, considering the variability of the climate and meteorological events. forcing, i.e. heat waves in the atmosphere produced by favorable weather conditions such as, for example, the persistence of the African anticyclone, without neglecting the analysis of the available data sources and the biological impacts reported in the literature. Subsequently, the numerical models and the data coming from the automatic profilers of physical and biochemical parameters (ARGO and BIOARGO) operating in the Mediterranean, will help to evaluate the impact of this thermal anomaly in the deeper layers of the sea and therefore on a marine ecosystem in the grips. with the difficulties associated with a rapid change in temperature.
“The changes are starting to have a concrete impact on everyday life, on economic activities up to the individual citizen, passing through the worsening of migratory phenomena”, underlines Gianmaria Sannino, head of the Enea Laboratory of Climate and Impact Modeling. “So – she adds – it is appropriate to quantitatively define the phenomena in progress to understand their causes and predict their developments”.
In addition to ENEA and Cnr, the French research institutes CLS (Collect Locatisation Satellites) and IFREMER (Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer) and the non-profit Mercator Ocean International (France) and + ATLANTIC CoLAB (Portugal).
Source: Ansa
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