2022 opens with a new alarm on the climate change front.
According to a study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric SciencesOcean temperatures set a new record in 2021, reaching the hottest values ever measured for the sixth consecutive year; and, even more alarming, is the situation in the Mediterranean which is confirmed as the basin that warms up the fastest. The article Another record: Ocean warming continues through 2021 Despite La Niña Conditions is signed by an international team of 23 researchers from 14 institutions (including Simona Simoncelli from INGV, the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, and Franco Reseghetti from ENEA, the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Development economically sustainable) and was created using the data available as at 31 December 2021, but also contains a review of previous years, based on new knowledge acquired in the meantime.
The researchers point out that the change in the thermal content of the oceans in 2021 is equivalent to the energy that would be obtained by detonating 7 atomic bombs every second for the entire duration of the year. And the new record, they warn, has been reached despite the fact that the phenomenon known as La niña which has helped limit warming in the Pacific Ocean.
For the Mediterranean, the alarming data illustrated in the study are accompanied by those of temperature monitoring in the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian seas, resumed in 2021, as part of the project MACMAP extension of INGV, in which ENEA participates. Since 1999, using commercial ships that travel the route between Genoa and Palermo, temperature data have been acquired which have made it possible to analyze thermal variations over time. A fundamental partner in this activity is the Italian shipping company GNV SpA (Grandi Navi Veloci) from whose ships the probes that measure the temperature are launched.
“It is very important to underline that the ocean absorbs just under a third of the CO2 emitted by man, but the warming of the waters reduces the efficiency of this process, leaving a greater percentage in the atmosphere. Monitoring and understanding how the thermal component and that linked to CO2 evolve in ocean waters, both individually and in synergy, are very important to arrive at a mitigation plan that respects the objectives approved to limit the effects of climate change – underlines Simona Simoncelli of INGV - For example, as a result of the warming of ocean waters (apart from the contribution of melt water from glaciers), the volume and therefore the sea level is increasing with dramatic repercussions for the Pacific atolls and island states such as the Maldives but also for our coastal areas. Furthermore, increasingly warmer ocean waters create the conditions for ever more violent and numerous storms and hurricanes, combined with periods of exaggerated heat in increasingly large areas. And, all this, without considering the biological effects: hotter water is less rich in oxygen and affects the food chain, just as water with higher acidity also has serious effects on living forms."
“During the last data collection campaign, in mid-December 2021, I was first disconcerted and then increasingly disheartened by the data that appeared on the acquisition system monitor – says Franco Reseghetti of ENEA. In the Tyrrhenian Sea I found the isotherm T = 14°C almost always below 700 m, sometimes even around 800 m, depth values that surprised me. In practice, even a deeper area than in the past has started to warm up clearly. I double-checked these December data with Simona Simoncelli for a long time, also looking for confirmation in datasets obtained from other measuring instruments in the same area and in the same period. But unfortunately our results were in good agreement with the others and the only conclusion was: there is a new record (although we would have gladly done without it).”
“This warm water began to 'invade' the Tyrrhenian Sea from the south, starting from the Egadi Islands and the north-west coast of Sicily, and continued northwards, affecting an increasingly large area of sea at increasing depths. Unfortunately – continues Reseghetti – for 2022 we are unable to provide forecasts, even if the path taken in recent years by the Mediterranean Sea seems clear enough with ever-increasing values of energy present in its waters which remains available for interaction with the atmosphere giving more and more often give rise to extreme weather events such as heat waves and heavy rainfall previously unknown in these areas. 2021 was a manifesto of all of this: the heat in Sicily in August, the rain in Liguria, the 'medicanes', the hurricanes in the Mediterranean at the end of November still in Sicily, just to give an example.”
More specifically, the time series of temperatures in the Mediterranean show more intense increases than those observed at the same intermediate depths in other areas of the global ocean.
“Since spring 2013, we have observed a progressive warming in the layer between 150 and 450 m of depth (but the temperature values are also increasing at greater depths), with an even more evident growth between 2014 and 2017, followed by a slight decline in 2018-2019 and a further rise in 2021” underlines Simona Simoncelli. “For the Tyrrhenian and Ligurian seas, in the period 1999-2021 the temperature variation was equal to 0.028°C/year, consistent with what was recorded in the Strait of Sicily by the CNR instrumentation which has been acquiring values since 1993. In their data, the increase of the temperature is estimated at 0.026°C/year over the whole period, but with a growth of 0.034°C/year after 2011. In our data, the overall average temperature variation in the 150-450 m layer is about 0.6°C (passing from 13.8°C to 14.4°C)”.
“This further warming, which can be seen as an indicator of the persistence of climate change, came, ironically, at the end of the first year of the "Decade of the Sea", the initiative launched by the United Nations to mobilize all sectors of civil society and promote a radical change in the way we study and manage the ocean, for a truly sustainable development that preserves a good environmental state of ecosystems and all resources that the ocean provides us” conclude Simoncelli and Reseghetti.
Link to the article
According to a study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric SciencesOcean temperatures set a new record in 2021, reaching the hottest values ever measured for the sixth consecutive year; and, even more alarming, is the situation in the Mediterranean which is confirmed as the basin that warms up the fastest. The article Another record: Ocean warming continues through 2021 Despite La Niña Conditions is signed by an international team of 23 researchers from 14 institutions (including Simona Simoncelli from INGV, the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, and Franco Reseghetti from ENEA, the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Development economically sustainable) and was created using the data available as at 31 December 2021, but also contains a review of previous years, based on new knowledge acquired in the meantime.
The researchers point out that the change in the thermal content of the oceans in 2021 is equivalent to the energy that would be obtained by detonating 7 atomic bombs every second for the entire duration of the year. And the new record, they warn, has been reached despite the fact that the phenomenon known as La niña which has helped limit warming in the Pacific Ocean.
For the Mediterranean, the alarming data illustrated in the study are accompanied by those of temperature monitoring in the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian seas, resumed in 2021, as part of the project MACMAP extension of INGV, in which ENEA participates. Since 1999, using commercial ships that travel the route between Genoa and Palermo, temperature data have been acquired which have made it possible to analyze thermal variations over time. A fundamental partner in this activity is the Italian shipping company GNV SpA (Grandi Navi Veloci) from whose ships the probes that measure the temperature are launched.
“It is very important to underline that the ocean absorbs just under a third of the CO2 emitted by man, but the warming of the waters reduces the efficiency of this process, leaving a greater percentage in the atmosphere. Monitoring and understanding how the thermal component and that linked to CO2 evolve in ocean waters, both individually and in synergy, are very important to arrive at a mitigation plan that respects the objectives approved to limit the effects of climate change – underlines Simona Simoncelli of INGV - For example, as a result of the warming of ocean waters (apart from the contribution of melt water from glaciers), the volume and therefore the sea level is increasing with dramatic repercussions for the Pacific atolls and island states such as the Maldives but also for our coastal areas. Furthermore, increasingly warmer ocean waters create the conditions for ever more violent and numerous storms and hurricanes, combined with periods of exaggerated heat in increasingly large areas. And, all this, without considering the biological effects: hotter water is less rich in oxygen and affects the food chain, just as water with higher acidity also has serious effects on living forms."
“During the last data collection campaign, in mid-December 2021, I was first disconcerted and then increasingly disheartened by the data that appeared on the acquisition system monitor – says Franco Reseghetti of ENEA. In the Tyrrhenian Sea I found the isotherm T = 14°C almost always below 700 m, sometimes even around 800 m, depth values that surprised me. In practice, even a deeper area than in the past has started to warm up clearly. I double-checked these December data with Simona Simoncelli for a long time, also looking for confirmation in datasets obtained from other measuring instruments in the same area and in the same period. But unfortunately our results were in good agreement with the others and the only conclusion was: there is a new record (although we would have gladly done without it).”
“This warm water began to 'invade' the Tyrrhenian Sea from the south, starting from the Egadi Islands and the north-west coast of Sicily, and continued northwards, affecting an increasingly large area of sea at increasing depths. Unfortunately – continues Reseghetti – for 2022 we are unable to provide forecasts, even if the path taken in recent years by the Mediterranean Sea seems clear enough with ever-increasing values of energy present in its waters which remains available for interaction with the atmosphere giving more and more often give rise to extreme weather events such as heat waves and heavy rainfall previously unknown in these areas. 2021 was a manifesto of all of this: the heat in Sicily in August, the rain in Liguria, the 'medicanes', the hurricanes in the Mediterranean at the end of November still in Sicily, just to give an example.”
More specifically, the time series of temperatures in the Mediterranean show more intense increases than those observed at the same intermediate depths in other areas of the global ocean.
“Since spring 2013, we have observed a progressive warming in the layer between 150 and 450 m of depth (but the temperature values are also increasing at greater depths), with an even more evident growth between 2014 and 2017, followed by a slight decline in 2018-2019 and a further rise in 2021” underlines Simona Simoncelli. “For the Tyrrhenian and Ligurian seas, in the period 1999-2021 the temperature variation was equal to 0.028°C/year, consistent with what was recorded in the Strait of Sicily by the CNR instrumentation which has been acquiring values since 1993. In their data, the increase of the temperature is estimated at 0.026°C/year over the whole period, but with a growth of 0.034°C/year after 2011. In our data, the overall average temperature variation in the 150-450 m layer is about 0.6°C (passing from 13.8°C to 14.4°C)”.
“This further warming, which can be seen as an indicator of the persistence of climate change, came, ironically, at the end of the first year of the "Decade of the Sea", the initiative launched by the United Nations to mobilize all sectors of civil society and promote a radical change in the way we study and manage the ocean, for a truly sustainable development that preserves a good environmental state of ecosystems and all resources that the ocean provides us” conclude Simoncelli and Reseghetti.
Link to the article
Photo 1: Antonio Guarnieri - INGV researcher and MACMAP project coordinator. Photo taken during the September 2021 campaign on board GNV's Excellent motor vessel during the launches of XBT probes for measuring water column temperatures in the Tyrrhenian Sea 
Photo 2: Franco Reseghetti - ENEA researcher. Photo taken during the September 2021 campaign on board GNV's Excellent motor vessel during the launches of XBT probes for measuring water column temperatures in the Tyrrhenian Sea