A High Resolution Reanalysis for the Mediterranean Sea

• DOI: 10.3389/feart.2021.702285
• Publication Date: 2021-11-30T17:48:58Z
• Authors: Romain Escudier; Emanuela Clementi; Andrea Cipollone; Jenny Pistoia; Massimiliano Drudi; Alessandro Grandi; Vladislav Lyubartsev; Rita Lecci; Ali Aydogdu; Damiano Delrosso; Mohamed Omar; Simona Masina; Giovanni Coppini; Nadia Pinardi
• Keywords: Argo; Bathythermograph; Ocean surface topography; Ocean dynamics; Ocean observations; Boundary current

In order to be able forecast the weather and estimate future climate changes in ocean, it is crucial understand past mechanisms responsible for ocean variability. This particularly true a complex area such as Mediterranean Sea with diverse dynamics like deep convection overturning circulation. To this end, effective tools are reanalyses or reconstructions of state. Here we present new physical reanalysis at high resolution, developed Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) framework. The hydrodynamic model based on Nucleus European Modelling Ocean (NEMO) combined variational data assimilation scheme (OceanVar). has horizontal resolution 1/24° 141 unevenly distributed vertical z* levels. It provides daily monthly temperature, salinity, current, sea level mixed layer depth well hourly fields surface velocities level. ECMWF ERA-5 atmospheric force boundary conditions Atlantic taken from global reanalysis. covers 33 years 1987 2019. Initialized SeaDataNet climatology January 1985, reaches nominal state after 2-years spin-up. In-situ CTD, ARGO floats XBT assimilated into combination satellite altimetry observations. been validated assessed through comparison in-situ observations literature climatologies. results show an overall improvement better representation main region compared previous, lower (1/16°), Temperature salinity RMSD decreased by respectively 14 18%. biases previous version corrected. Climate signals continuous increase temperature confirming estimates other will allow study processes multi-scales, large scale transient small mesoscale structures selection indicators basin.