Photo by P. Jarmoluk
Oceanography is the branch of earth sciences that studies the oceans, with particular regard to the physical, chemical, geological and biological processes that occur in them. Operational oceanography, on the other hand, combines the technological/engineering component with the purely scientific one, for the observation and systematic monitoring of the seas, oceans and the interactions between the geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere in the marine environment. Operational oceanography has for years developed an integrated system of observations and models with the aim of producing services (e.g. web portals for using weather-marine forecasts) and disseminating forecast data, related quality indices and sea state indicators.
The ocean is one of the main components of the Earth system which regulates its climate and its changes. However, the study of climate and climate change must consider all the components of the climate system, such as the atmosphere, sea and land ice, continental surface and the biosphere. This combination is possible in global climate models. International projects and cooperation currently make available to the scientific community a large number of simulations of past and present climates and possible future scenarios which represent an important tool for studying climate and climate change.
INGV researchers are dedicated to:
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the study of the circulation and state of the marine environment of the Mediterranean Sea and its variations
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the study, through observations and models, of the short and long-term variations of the state of the sea, of the climatic changes in progress and of the effects on the marine environment
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the study of climate and its variability with observations, reanalysis and global climate models. Particular attention is dedicated to the Mediterranean area and its teleconnections due to the interest and recognized vulnerability of the area itself to climate change
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creation of services and applications dedicated to users based on the needs of those who carry out operations and monitoring activities at sea, research activities, scientific communication/dissemination activities and those who implement decision-making processes in the field of marine environmental resources and the blue economy .
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the estimation of the relative sea level rise caused by global warming and its effects on the coast. The analyzes include subsidence assessments through geodetic and remote sensing data. Scenarios of coastal flooding expected for 2100 calculated on digital terrain models and IPCC sea level rise projections are realised.
Some data is distributed through portals:
The continuous development and management of the MFS-INGV forecast model of the Mediterranean at 1/16 of a degree, forced by two different atmospheric data sets (ECMWF and COSMOME) allows to characterize the uncertainty deriving from the atmospheric forcing and is aimed at the creation of applications for short-term monitoring of the marine environment and services dedicated to users, both internal and external to the Authority. This system makes use of the operational management of a database, both in Real Time and in Delay Mode, necessary to provide all the boundary conditions (initial, lateral and atmospheric forcing conditions) and the data for assimilation, which guarantees the containment of the predictive error within acceptable values. The continuous evaluation of the error associated with the main prognostic variables is carried out and provided contextually through a web service
The study of the long-term variations of the state of the sea, of the climatic changes in progress and of the effects on the marine environment are carried out through the production of re-analysis of the Mediterranean Sea. Two INGV reanalyses were produced within the NEXTDATA project (1955-2015) and MyOcean (1987-2016) and widely disseminated during Phase I of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service.