Articles | Volume 17, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-3157-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-3157-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Model evaluation paper
| 
23 Apr 2024
Model evaluation paper |
| 23 Apr 2024
| 23 Apr 2024
CAR36, a regional high-resolution ocean forecasting system for improving drift and beaching of Sargassum in the Caribbean archipelago
Sylvain Cailleau
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department Operational Oceanography, Mercator Ocean International, Toulouse, 31400, France
Laurent Bessières
Department Operational Oceanography, Mercator Ocean International, Toulouse, 31400, France
Léonel Chiendje
Master II In Oceanography and Applications, University of Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin
Flavie Dubost
Department Operational Oceanography, Mercator Ocean International, Toulouse, 31400, France
Guillaume Reffray
Department Operational Oceanography, Mercator Ocean International, Toulouse, 31400, France
Jean-Michel Lellouche
Department Operational Oceanography, Mercator Ocean International, Toulouse, 31400, France
Simon van Gennip
Department Operational Oceanography, Mercator Ocean International, Toulouse, 31400, France
Charly Régnier
Department Operational Oceanography, Mercator Ocean International, Toulouse, 31400, France
Marie Drevillon
Department Operational Oceanography, Mercator Ocean International, Toulouse, 31400, France
Marc Tressol
Department Operational Oceanography, Mercator Ocean International, Toulouse, 31400, France
Matthieu Clavier
Department Operational Oceanography, Mercator Ocean International, Toulouse, 31400, France
Julien Temple-Boyer
Department Operational Oceanography, Mercator Ocean International, Toulouse, 31400, France
Léo Berline
Aix-Marseille Univ, Université de Toulon, CNRS, IRD, MIO, Marseille, France
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State Planet, 6-osr9, 5, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-6-osr9-5-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-6-osr9-5-2025, 2025
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Statistics of marine heatwaves and cold spells in the water column of the Northwest Atlantic during 1993–2023 are derived using a global ocean reanalysis product. On the Scotian Shelf, temperatures and parameters of extreme events present layered structures in the water column, long-term trends, and sharp increases around 2012. Quantification of extreme warm (cold) conditions in 2012 (1998) supports previous studies on the impacts of these conditions on several marine life species.
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Marine heatwaves (MHWs) are intensifying due to climate change. In 2023, the Copernicus Marine forecast system tracked a significant MHW event in the North Atlantic tropical ocean. We show this event was unprecedented, at the surface and at depth. It peaked in the north-east in May, spreading south-west to reach the Caribbean by autumn. In the east and centre parts, the MHW remained within the surface layers, while in the Caribbean, it reached deeper levels due to warm waters advected by equatorial eddies.
Rosmery Sosa-Gutierrez, Julien Jouanno, and Leo Berline
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Since 2010, pelagic Sargassum spp. blooms have increased in several tropical Atlantic regions, causing socioeconomic and ecosystem impacts. Offshore structuration of Sargassum by mesoscale dynamics may influence transport and growth. Sargassum stays afloat, constantly interacting with currents, waves, winds, and mesoscale eddies. We find that anticyclones and cyclones effectively trap Sargassum throughout its propagation, with a greater tendency for cyclones to accumulate Sargassum.
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Ocean Sci., 21, 1329–1347, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1329-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1329-2025, 2025
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By providing all weather, global, and real-time observations of sea level, a key variable to constrain ocean analysis and forecasting systems, satellite altimetry has had a profound impact on the development of operational oceanography. This paper provides an overview of the development and evolution of satellite altimetry and operational oceanography over the past 20 years from the launch of Jason-1 in 2001 to the launch of SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) in 2022.
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Maxime Duranson, Léo Berline, Loïc Guilloux, Alice Della Penna, Mark D. Ohman, Sven Gastauer, Cédric Cotte, Daniela Bănaru, Théo Garcia, Maristella Berta, Andrea Doglioli, Gérald Gregori, Francesco D'Ovidio, and François Carlotti
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The zooplankton community was investigated using net sampling across the North Balearic Front at fine resolution. The front mostly acts as a zonal boundary between communities with a copepod dominated community to the north and a more diversified community to the south. The front itself showed lower biovolume and abundances. The main community difference occurred in the 0–100 m layer, while deeper layers were more homogeneous.
Alisée A. Chaigneau, Angélique Melet, Aurore Voldoire, Maialen Irazoqui Apecechea, Guillaume Reffray, Stéphane Law-Chune, and Lotfi Aouf
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 4031–4048, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-4031-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-4031-2024, 2024
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Climate-change-induced sea level rise increases the frequency of extreme sea levels. We analyze projected changes in extreme sea levels for western European coasts produced with high-resolution models (∼ 6 km). Unlike commonly used coarse-scale global climate models, this approach allows us to simulate key processes driving coastal sea level variations, such as long-term sea level rise, tides, storm surges induced by low atmospheric surface pressure and winds, waves, and their interactions.
Antonio Sánchez-Román, Flora Gues, Romain Bourdalle-Badie, Marie-Isabelle Pujol, Ananda Pascual, and Marie Drévillon
State Planet, 4-osr8, 4, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-4-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-4-2024, 2024
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This study investigates the changing pattern of the Gulf Stream over the last 3 decades as observed in the altimetric record (1993–2022). Changes in the Gulf Stream path have an effect on its speed (and associated energy) and also on waters transported towards the subpolar North Atlantic, impacting Europe's climate. The observed shifts in the paths seem to be linked to variability in the North Atlantic Ocean during winter that may play an important role.
Andrea Storto, Giulia Chierici, Julia Pfeffer, Anne Barnoud, Romain Bourdalle-Badie, Alejandro Blazquez, Davide Cavaliere, Noémie Lalau, Benjamin Coupry, Marie Drevillon, Sebastien Fourest, Gilles Larnicol, and Chunxue Yang
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The variability in the manometric sea level (i.e. the sea level mass component) in three ocean basins is investigated in this study using three different methods (reanalyses, gravimetry, and altimetry in combination with in situ observations). We identify the emerging long-term signals, the consistency of the datasets, and the influence of large-scale climate modes on the regional manometric sea level variations at both seasonal and interannual timescales.
Karina von Schuckmann, Lorena Moreira, Mathilde Cancet, Flora Gues, Emmanuelle Autret, Jonathan Baker, Clément Bricaud, Romain Bourdalle-Badie, Lluis Castrillo, Lijing Cheng, Frederic Chevallier, Daniele Ciani, Alvaro de Pascual-Collar, Vincenzo De Toma, Marie Drevillon, Claudia Fanelli, Gilles Garric, Marion Gehlen, Rianne Giesen, Kevin Hodges, Doroteaciro Iovino, Simon Jandt-Scheelke, Eric Jansen, Melanie Juza, Ioanna Karagali, Thomas Lavergne, Simona Masina, Ronan McAdam, Audrey Minière, Helen Morrison, Tabea Rebekka Panteleit, Andrea Pisano, Marie-Isabelle Pujol, Ad Stoffelen, Sulian Thual, Simon Van Gennip, Pierre Veillard, Chunxue Yang, and Hao Zuo
State Planet, 4-osr8, 1, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-1-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-1-2024, 2024
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Alisée A. Chaigneau, Stéphane Law-Chune, Angélique Melet, Aurore Voldoire, Guillaume Reffray, and Lotfi Aouf
Ocean Sci., 19, 1123–1143, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-19-1123-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-19-1123-2023, 2023
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Wind waves and swells are major drivers of coastal environment changes and can drive coastal marine hazards such as coastal flooding. In this paper, by using numerical modeling along the European Atlantic coastline, we assess how present and future wave characteristics are impacted by sea level changes. For example, at the end of the century under the SSP5-8.5 climate change scenario, extreme significant wave heights are higher by up to +40 % due to the effect of tides and mean sea level rise.
Rainer Kiko, Marc Picheral, David Antoine, Marcel Babin, Léo Berline, Tristan Biard, Emmanuel Boss, Peter Brandt, Francois Carlotti, Svenja Christiansen, Laurent Coppola, Leandro de la Cruz, Emilie Diamond-Riquier, Xavier Durrieu de Madron, Amanda Elineau, Gabriel Gorsky, Lionel Guidi, Helena Hauss, Jean-Olivier Irisson, Lee Karp-Boss, Johannes Karstensen, Dong-gyun Kim, Rachel M. Lekanoff, Fabien Lombard, Rubens M. Lopes, Claudie Marec, Andrew M. P. McDonnell, Daniela Niemeyer, Margaux Noyon, Stephanie H. O'Daly, Mark D. Ohman, Jessica L. Pretty, Andreas Rogge, Sarah Searson, Masashi Shibata, Yuji Tanaka, Toste Tanhua, Jan Taucher, Emilia Trudnowska, Jessica S. Turner, Anya Waite, and Lars Stemmann
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 4315–4337, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4315-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4315-2022, 2022
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The term
marine particlescomprises detrital aggregates; fecal pellets; bacterioplankton, phytoplankton and zooplankton; and even fish. Here, we present a global dataset that contains 8805 vertical particle size distribution profiles obtained with Underwater Vision Profiler 5 (UVP5) camera systems. These data are valuable to the scientific community, as they can be used to constrain important biogeochemical processes in the ocean, such as the flux of carbon to the deep sea.
Alisée A. Chaigneau, Guillaume Reffray, Aurore Voldoire, and Angélique Melet
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 2035–2062, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-2035-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-2035-2022, 2022
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Climate-change-induced sea level rise is a major threat for coastal and low-lying regions. Projections of coastal sea level changes are thus of great interest for coastal risk assessment and have significantly developed in recent years. In this paper, the objective is to provide high-resolution (6 km) projections of sea level changes in the northeastern Atlantic region bordering western Europe. For that purpose, a regional model is used to refine existing coarse global projections.
Léo Berline, Andrea Michelangelo Doglioli, Anne Petrenko, Stéphanie Barrillon, Boris Espinasse, Frederic A. C. Le Moigne, François Simon-Bot, Melilotus Thyssen, and François Carlotti
Biogeosciences, 18, 6377–6392, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-6377-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-6377-2021, 2021
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While the Ionian Sea is considered a nutrient-depleted and low-phytoplankton biomass area, it is a crossroad for water mass circulation. In the central Ionian Sea, we observed a strong contrast in particle distribution across a ~100 km long transect. Using remote sensing and Lagrangian simulations, we suggest that this contrast finds its origin in the long-distance transport of particles from the north, west and east of the Ionian Sea, where phytoplankton production was more intense.
Julien Jouanno, Rachid Benshila, Léo Berline, Antonin Soulié, Marie-Hélène Radenac, Guillaume Morvan, Frédéric Diaz, Julio Sheinbaum, Cristele Chevalier, Thierry Thibaut, Thomas Changeux, Frédéric Menard, Sarah Berthet, Olivier Aumont, Christian Ethé, Pierre Nabat, and Marc Mallet
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 4069–4086, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-4069-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-4069-2021, 2021
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The tropical Atlantic has been facing a massive proliferation of Sargassum since 2011, with severe environmental and socioeconomic impacts. We developed a modeling framework based on the NEMO ocean model, which integrates transport by currents and waves, and physiology of Sargassum with varying internal nutrient quota, and considers stranding at the coast. Results demonstrate the ability of the model to reproduce and forecast the seasonal cycle and large-scale distribution of Sargassum biomass.
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Short summary
In order to improve Sargassum drift forecasting in the Caribbean area, drift models can be forced by higher-resolution ocean currents. To this goal a 3 km resolution regional ocean model has been developed. Its assessment is presented with a particular focus on the reproduction of fine structures representing key features of the Caribbean region dynamics and Sargassum transport. The simulated propagation of a North Brazil Current eddy and its dissipation was found to be quite realistic.
In order to improve Sargassum drift forecasting in the Caribbean area, drift models can be...
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