Abstract
The Mediterranean Sea is one of the first regions where sea surface temperature (SST) increase was linked to greenhouse effects and global warming. Due to its sensitivity to climate variability and its high impact on local and remote climate conditions, much effort has been made to assess the SST variability in the Mediterranean as a whole. However, the Mediterranean is composed of several basins, each of which plays a different role in its conveyor belt’s function. This study focuses on the basin of the Tyrrhenian Sea which represents one of the crucial areas for deep mixing of the Mediterranean main water masses. Thirty-seven years (1982–2018) of satellite-derived data were used to investigate the SST variability in relation to large-scale and local forcing mechanisms. A significant warming trend of 0.034 ± 0.004 °C/year was found, which led to an average warming of 1.288 ± 0.129 °C over the considered period. The observed warming presents time-dependent spatial patterns as well as changes in the seasonal cycle. Our results highlight that the Tyrrhenian’s individual long-term surface variability has different characteristics than the Mediterranean as a whole and provide insight into the relative influence of large-scale teleconnection patterns and local air-sea interaction on this variability.
Highlights
The Mediterranean Sea is one of the first regions where sea surface temperature (SST) increase was linked to greenhouse effects and global warming
The temporal and spatial SST variability in the Tyrrhenian Sea was investigated based on the satellite-derived SST dataset from the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service
Very low increase rates were observed in more recent years, which differ significantly from those regarding the Mediterranean Sea (Table S1)
Summary
The Mediterranean Sea is one of the first regions where sea surface temperature (SST) increase was linked to greenhouse effects and global warming. Our results highlight that the Tyrrhenian’s individual long-term surface variability has different characteristics than the Mediterranean as a whole and provide insight into the relative influence of large-scale teleconnection patterns and local air-sea interaction on this variability. Due to the thermal inertia of the upper-ocean mixed layer, low-frequency atmospheric variability influences SST anomalies more efficiently than synoptic variability[7]. This low-frequency circulation variability tends to be organized into recurring large-scale patterns in particular geographical regions (i.e. teleconnections).
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