Abstract. We present a new product composed of a set of
thermohaline climatic indices from 1950 to 2015 for the Mediterranean Sea
such as decadal temperature and salinity anomalies, their mean values over
selected depths, decadal ocean heat and salt content anomalies at selected
depth layers as well as their long time series. It is produced from a new
high-resolution climatology of temperature and salinity on a 1∕8∘
regular grid based on historical high-quality in situ observations. Ocean
heat and salt content differences between 1980–2015 and 1950–1979 are
compared for evaluation of the climate shift in the Mediterranean Sea. The
two successive periods are chosen according to the standard WMO climate
normals. The spatial patterns of heat and salt content shifts demonstrate
that the climate changes differently in the several regions of the basin.
Long time series of heat and salt content for the period 1950 to 2015 are
also provided which indicate that in the Mediterranean Sea there is a net
mean volume warming and salinification since 1950 that has accelerated during
the last two decades. The time series also show that the ocean heat content
seems to fluctuate on a cycle of about 40 years and seems to follow the
Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation climate cycle, indicating that the natural
large-scale atmospheric variability could be superimposed onto the warming
trend. This product is an observation-based estimation of the Mediterranean
climatic indices. It relies solely on spatially interpolated data produced
from in situ observations averaged over decades in order to smooth the
decadal variability and reveal the long-term trends. It can provide a
valuable contribution to the modellers' community, next to the
satellite-based products, and serve as a baseline for the evaluation of
climate-change model simulations, thus contributing to a better understanding
of the complex response of the Mediterranean Sea to the ongoing global
climate change. The product is available in netCDF at the following sources:
annual and seasonal T∕S anomalies
(https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1408832), annual and seasonal T∕S
vertical averaged anomalies (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1408929),
annual and seasonal areal density of OHC/OSC anomalies
(https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1408877), annual and seasonal linear
trends of T∕S, OHC/OSC anomalies
(https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1408917), annual and seasonal time
series of T∕S, OHC/OSC anomalies
(https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1411398), and differences of two
30-year averages of annual and seasonal T∕S, OHC/OSC anomalies
(https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1408903).
Aerosol decadal trends – Part 2: In-situ aerosol particle number concentrations at GAW and ACTRIS stations
