Abstract
Oceans play a key role in energy storage in the global Earth–Ocean–Atmosphere system. Within this framework, the knowledge of past evolution and future trends of sea surface temperature is crucial for the future climate scenarios. Previous studies have highlighted the role of sea surface temperature as an important ingredient for the development and/or intensification of heavy precipitation events in the Western Mediterranean basin but have also highlighted its role in heat waves in Europe. In this study, a consistent warming trend has been found for daily sea surface temperature data series derived from satellites (1982–2016) for the whole Mediterranean region and for different temporal scales, from daily to monthly, seasonal and decadal estimates. Additionally, spatial clustering analysis has been run to look for its spatial structure. Two main distribution modes have been found for sea surface temperature in winter and summer, while spring and fall show transitional regimes. Winter mode shows a north-to-south increasing gradient banded structure while summer regime presents a set of well-differentiated areas.
Highlights
According to the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC (2013) most of the global energy change inventory is stored in the oceans; about 93% of the increase in Earth’s energy inventory in the period from 1971 to 2010 has induced warming of the oceans, while its upper layer (0–700 m deep) accounts for 64% of the total
There have been studies looking for statistical correlation between Mediterranean SST and precipitation; Turuncoglu (2015) found that precipitation over the Anatolian Peninsula is very sensitive to the SST of the surrounding seas
It is clear that a good knowledge of SST climatology, spatial patterns and trends is a main concern regarding Mediterranean and European climate trends and projections, especially in the case of heavy precipitation events (HPE) events
Summary
According to the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC (2013) most of the global energy change inventory is stored in the oceans; about 93% of the increase in Earth’s energy inventory in the period from 1971 to 2010 has induced warming of the oceans, while its upper layer (0–700 m deep) accounts for 64% of the total. Standardised sea surface temperature in situ observations, mainly from trading ships, started on the second half of the nineteenth century according to the rules agreed in the Brussels Maritime Conferences on 1853 (Rayner et al 2006) The collections of such historical data and its integration with recent observations have provided a very useful tool to monitor global change. Skliris et al (2012) used two different data bases to investigate decadal variability of SST in the Mediterranean They found different total increases in SST for the 1985–2008 period for the whole Mediterranean (0.89 °C), the Western (0.62 °C) and Eastern (1.01 °C) basins. In his doctoral thesis, Pastor (2012) used clustering techniques to look for differentiated SST areas in the Mediterranean, finding two main regimes for SST distribution in winter and summer for the 1985–2009 period Another aspect that has been investigated recently is the role of SST in the global water cycle.
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