Even in September, the exceptional heat wave that this summer overheated the Mediterranean Sea, among the most intense ever detected in the basin in the era of satellites, does not give up: the peak was reached on 21 July in the surface waters of the Ligurian Sea, with temperatures of five degrees above average.
The data from the CAREHeat project (deteCtion and threAts of maRinE Heat waves), funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), in which Enea and Cnr participate for Italy, the latter in the role of coordinator.
The project, launched last March, monitored the heat wave by analyzing data relating to the temperature of sea surface waters made available almost in real time by the Copernicus Marine Service.
The data show that the exceptional heat wave began in the second half of April and mainly affected the central and north-western part of the Mediterranean.
In this area, the surface temperature of the sea registered a surge around 10 May and within about ten days the waters went from 16 to 22 degrees.
The peak was reached in late July in the Ligurian Sea and, despite a slight drop in temperatures at the end of August, the heat wave is still evident in the measurements of 13 September.
"We are still observing an anomaly of about two degrees in the average temperatures of surface waters, which intensifies in the north-western part of the Mediterranean where the anomaly is higher than four degrees", explains the coordinator of the CAREHeat project, Rosalia Santoleri of Cnr. .
The situation continues to be monitored: experts intend to investigate the causes of this exceptional heat and the consequences on the marine ecosystem.
