Detection, characterization and trends of Marine Heat waves in the global worming scenario: the CAREHeat Project 

<p>Marine Heat Waves (MHWs), persistent and anomalously sea water temperature warm events, are known to have significant impacts on marine ecosystems as well as on air-sea exchanges. As global ocean temperatures continue to rise, MHWs have become more widespread, threatening marine ecosystems and their services for food-provision, livelihoods and recreation. Detecting and predicting the occurrence, intensity and duration of these extreme events, and understanding their impacts on marine ecosystems is a key step towards developing science-based solutions for sustainable development.</p> <p>The project &#8220;deteCtion and threAts of maRinE Heat waves &#8211; CAREHeat&#8221;, funded by ESA in the framework of the Ocean Health initiative, aims at improving the current MHW detection and characterization methodology, as well as advancing the understanding of the physical processes involved, and the corresponding ecological and biogeochemical changes.</p> <p>This is being to be achieved following a multidisciplinary approach capitalizing on the large potential offered by satellite Earth observations, complemented with in situ field measurements, physical and biogeochemical ocean reanalyses, biogeochemical modelling and emerging machine learning technologies. In this presentation an overview of the CAREHeat Project activities and its preliminary results will be provided. In particular the assessment of the major gaps in scientific knowledge, existing products and tools in MHW detection will be discussed. A first version of the CAREHeat MHW Global Atlas covering the entire satellite era (1981-today) will be presented and analysed to investigate the year-to year MWH variability in spatial extension, intensity, duration and rate of evolution.</p> <p>Specific work has also been done to investigate the impact of sea temperature trends and prominent climate modes, as El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), in order to disentangle the slow-varying SST component and quasi-periodic oscillations from the abrupt changes that are characteristics of these extreme events.</p> <p>A first preliminary analysis of the impact of MWHs on marine ecosystem will be presented.&#160;&#160;</p> <p>Up to date about the project research and results can be found visiting the&#160; CAREHeat website (www.careheat.org) or on Twitter (@ careheat_)</p>