'''This product has been archived''' "''DEFINITION''' Marine primary production corresponds to the amount of inorganic carbon which is converted into organic matter during the photosynthesis, and which feeds upper trophic layers. The daily primary production is estimated from satellite observations with the Antoine and Morel algorithm (1996). This algorithm modelized the potential growth in function of the light and temperature conditions, and with the chlorophyll concentration as a biomass index. The monthly area average is computed from monthly primary production weighted by the pixels size. The trend is computed from the deseasonalised time series (1998-2022), following the Vantrepotte and Mélin (2009) method. The trend estimate is not shown because the length of the time series does not allow to completely differentiate the climate trend to the natural variability of the primary production. More details are provided in the Ocean State Reports 4 (Cossarini et al. ,2020). '''CONTEXT''' Marine primary production is at the basis of the marine food web and produce about 50% of the oxygen we breath every year (Behrenfeld et al., 2001). Study primary production is of paramount importance as ocean health and fisheries are directly linked to the primary production (Pauly and Christensen, 1995, Fee et al., 2019). Changes in primary production can have consequences on biogeochemical cycles, and specially on the carbon cycle, and impact the biological carbon pump intensity, and therefore climate (Chavez et al., 2011). Despite its importance for climate and socio-economics resources, primary production measurements are scarce and do not allow a deep investigation of the primary production evolution over decades. Satellites observations and modelling can fill this gap. However, depending of their parametrisation, models can predict an increase or a decrease in primary production by the end of the century (Laufkötter et al., 2015). Primary production from satellite observations presents therefore the advantage to dispose an archive of more than two decades of global data. This archive can be assimilated in models, in addition to direct environmental analysis, to minimise models uncertainties (Gregg and Rousseaux, 2019). In the Ocean State Reports 4, primary production estimate from satellite and from modelling are compared at the scale of the Mediterranean Sea. This demonstrates the ability of such a comparison to deeply investigate physical and biogeochemical processes associated to the primary production evolution (Cossarini et al., 2020) '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' Global primary production does not show specific trend and remain relatively constant over the archive 1998-2022. The temporal variability of the primary production appears to be mainly driven by the seasonal variation. However, some specific inter-annual event may induce noticeable increase or decrease in primary production, as for example in the second part of 2011. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00225

'''This product has been archived'''                For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu '''DEFINITION''' The indicator of the Kuroshio extension phase variations is based on the standardized high frequency altimeter Eddy Kinetic Energy (EKE) averaged in the area 142-149°E and 32-37°N and computed from the DUACS (https://duacs.cls.fr) delayed-time (reprocessed version DT-2021, CMEMS SEALEVEL_GLO_PHY_L4_MY_008_047) and near real-time (CMEMS SEALEVEL_GLO_PHY_L4_NRT_OBSERVATIONS_008_046) altimeter sea level gridded products. The change in the reprocessed version (previously DT-2018) and the extension of the mean value of the EKE (now 27 years, previously 20 years) induce some slight changes not impacting the general variability of the Kuroshio extension (correlation coefficient of 0.988 for the total period, 0.994 for the delayed time period only). '''CONTEXT''' The long-term mean and trends alone do not give a complete view of the likely changes in position of unstable western boundary current extensions (Kelly et al., 2010). The Kuroshio Extension is an eastward-flowing current in the subtropical western North Pacific after the Kuroshio separates from the coast of Japan at 35°N, 140°E. Being the extension of a wind-driven western boundary current, the Kuroshio Extension is characterized by a strong variability and is rich in large-amplitude meanders and energetic eddies (Niiler et al., 2003; Qiu, 2003, 2002). The Kuroshio Extension region has the largest sea surface height variability on sub-annual and decadal time scales in the extratropical North Pacific Ocean (Jayne et al., 2009; Qiu and Chen, 2010, 2005). Prediction and monitoring of the path of the Kuroshio are of huge importance for local economies as the position of the Kuroshio extension strongly determines the regions where phytoplankton and hence fish are located. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The different states of the Kuroshio extension phase have been presented and validated by Bessières et al. (2013) and further reported by Drévillon et al. (2018) in the Copernicus Ocean State Report #2. Two rather different states of the Kuroshio extension are observed: an ‘elongated state’ (also called ‘strong state’) corresponding to a narrow strong steady jet, and a ‘contracted state’ (also called ‘weak state’) in which the jet is weaker and more unsteady, spreading on a wider latitudinal band. When the Kuroshio Extension jet is in a contracted (elongated) state, the upstream Kuroshio Extension path tends to become more (less) variable and regional eddy kinetic energy level tends to be higher (lower). In between these two opposite phases, the Kuroshio extension jet has many intermediate states of transition and presents either progressively weakening or strengthening trends. In 2018, the indicator reveals an elongated state followed by a weakening neutral phase since then. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00222

'''This product has been archived''' For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu '''DEFINITION''' The time series are derived from the regional chlorophyll reprocessed (REP) products as distributed by CMEMS which, in turn, result from the application of the regional chlorophyll algorithms over remote sensing reflectances (Rrs) provided by the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (ESA OC-CCI, Sathyendranath et al. 2019; Jackson 2020). Daily regional mean values are calculated by performing the average (weighted by pixel area) over the region of interest. A fixed annual cycle is extracted from the original signal, using the Census-I method as described in Vantrepotte et al. (2009). The deasonalised time series is derived by subtracting the mean seasonal cycle from the original time series, and then fitted to a linear regression to, finally, obtain the linear trend. '''CONTEXT''' Phytoplankton – and chlorophyll concentration as a proxy for phytoplankton – respond rapidly to changes in environmental conditions, such as temperature, light and nutrients availability, and mixing. The response in the North Atlantic ranges from cyclical to decadal oscillations (Henson et al., 2009); it is therefore of critical importance to monitor chlorophyll concentration at multiple temporal and spatial scales, in order to be able to separate potential long-term climate signals from natural variability in the short term. In particular, phytoplankton in the North Atlantic are known to respond to climate variability associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), with the initiation of the spring bloom showing a nominal correlation with sea surface temperature and the NAO index (Zhai et al., 2013). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' While the overall trend average for the 1997-2020 period in the North Atlantic Ocean is slightly positive (0.92 ± 0.13 % per year), an underlying low frequency harmonic signal can be seen in the deseasonalised data. The annual average for the region in 2020 is 0.31 mg m-3. Though no appreciable changes in the timing of the spring and autumn blooms have been observed during 2020, these reached higher chlorophyll values than the average for the time series. In particular, the spring bloom maximum in 2020, circa 0.80 mg m-3, showed an increase in chlorophyll concentration from the observations during the 2016-2019 spring blooms. Note: The key findings will be updated annually in November, in line with OMI evolutions. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00194

'''This product has been archived''' For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu '''DEFINITION''' The time series are derived from the regional chlorophyll reprocessed (REP) product as distributed by CMEMS. This dataset, derived from multi-sensor (SeaStar-SeaWiFS, AQUA-MODIS, NOAA20-VIIRS, NPP-VIIRS, Envisat-MERIS and Sentinel3A-OLCI) Rrs spectra produced by CNR using an in-house processing chain, is obtained by means of the Mediterranean Ocean Colour regional algorithms: an updated version of the MedOC4 (Case 1 (off-shore) waters, Volpe et al., 2019, with new coefficients) and AD4 (Case 2 (coastal) waters, Berthon and Zibordi, 2004). The processing chain and the techniques used for algorithms merging are detailed in Colella et al. (2021). Monthly regional mean values are calculated by performing the average of 2D monthly mean (weighted by pixel area) over the region of interest. The deseasonalized time series is obtained by applying the X-11 seasonal adjustment methodology on the original time series as described in Colella et al. (2016), and then the Mann-Kendall test (Mann, 1945; Kendall, 1975) and Sens’s method (Sen, 1968) are subsequently applied to obtain the magnitude of trend. '''CONTEXT''' Phytoplankton and chlorophyll concentration as a proxy for phytoplankton respond rapidly to changes in environmental conditions, such as light, temperature, nutrients and mixing (Colella et al. 2016). The character of the response depends on the nature of the change drivers, and ranges from seasonal cycles to decadal oscillations (Basterretxea et al. 2018). Therefore, it is of critical importance to monitor chlorophyll concentration at multiple temporal and spatial scales, in order to be able to separate potential long-term climate signals from natural variability in the short term. In particular, phytoplankton in the Mediterranean Sea is known to respond to climate variability associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (Basterretxea et al. 2018, Colella et al. 2016). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' In the Mediterranean Sea, the trend average for the 1997-2020 period is slightly negative (-0.580.62% per year). Due to the change in processing techniques and chlorophyll retrieval, this trend estimate cannot be compared directly to those previously reported. The observations time series (in grey) shows minima values have been quite constant until 2015 and then there is a little decrease up to 2020, when an absolute minimum occurs with values lower than 0.04 mg m-3. Throughout the time series, maxima are variable year by year (with absolute maximum in 2015, >0.14 mg m-3), showing an evident reduction since 2016. In the last years of the series, the decrease of chlorophyll concentrations is also observed in the deseasonalized timeseries (in green) with a marked step in 2020. This attenuation of chlorophyll values in the last years results in an overall negative trend for the Mediterranean Sea. Note: The key findings will be updated annually in November, in line with OMI evolutions. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00259

'''This product has been archived''' For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu '''DEFINITION''' Marine primary production corresponds to the amount of inorganic carbon which is converted into organic matter during the photosynthesis, and which feeds upper trophic layers. The daily primary production is estimated from satellite observations with the Antoine and Morel algorithm (1996). This algorithm modelized the potential growth in function of the light and temperature conditions, and with the chlorophyll concentration as a biomass index. The monthly area average is computed from monthly primary production weighted by the pixels size. The trend is computed from the deseasonalised time series (1998-2019), following the Vantrepotte and Mélin method. More details are provided in the Ocean State Reports 4 (Cossarini et al. ,2020). '''CONTEXT''' Marine primary production is at the basis of the marine food web and produce about 50% of the oxygen we breath every year (Behrenfeld et al., 2001). Study primary production is of paramount importance as ocean health and fisheries are directly linked to the primary production (Pauly and Christensen, 1995, Fee et al., 2019). Changes in primary production can have consequences on biogeochemical cycles, and specially on the carbon cycle, and impact the biological carbon pump intensity, and therefore climate (Chavez et al., 2011). Despite its importance for climate and socio-economics resources, primary production measurements are scarce and do not allow a deep investigation of the primary production evolution over decades. Satellites observations and modelling can fill this gap. However, depending of their parametrisation, models can predict an increase or a decrease in primary production by the end of the century (Laufkötter et al., 2015). Primary production from satellite observations present therefore the advantage to dispose an archive of more than two decades of global data. This archive can be assimilated in models, in addition to direct environmental analysis, to minimise models uncertainties (Gregg and Rousseaux, 2019). In the Ocean State Reports 4, primary production estimate from satellite and from modelling are compared at the scale of the Mediterranean Sea. This demonstrate the ability of such a comparison to deeply investigate physical and biogeochemical processes associated to the primary production evolution (Cossarini et al., 2020) '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The trend for the global ocean is negative over the period 1998-2019 with a decline in primary production of about 0.67 mgC.m-2.yr-1 or equivalently 0.2 %.yr-1. Note: The key findings will be updated annually in November, in line with OMI evolutions. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00225

'''This product has been archived'''                For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu '''DEFINITION''' The sea level ocean monitoring indicator is derived from the DUACS delayed-time (DT-2021 version) altimeter gridded maps of sea level anomalies based on a stable number of altimeters (two) in the satellite constellation. The product is distributed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service and the Copernicus Marine Service (SEALEVEL_GLO_PHY_CLIMATE_L4_MY_008_057). The regional sea level trends are derived from a linear fit of the altimeter sea level maps. The altimeter data have not been corrected for the effect of the Glacial Isostatic Adjustment nor the TOPEX-A instrumental drift during the period 1993-1998. The trend uncertainty is provided in a 90% confidence interval (Prandi et al., 2021). This estimate only considers errors related to the altimeter observation system (i.e., orbit determination errors, geophysical correction errors and inter-mission bias correction errors). The presence of the interannual signal can strongly influence the trend estimation considering to the altimeter period considered (Wang et al., 2021; Cazenave et al., 2014). The uncertainty linked to this effect is not taken into account. '''CONTEXT''' The indicator on sea level trend is a crucial index of climate change, and individual components contribute to sea level rise, including expansion due to ocean warming and melting of glaciers and ice sheets (WCRP Global Sea Level Budget Group, 2018). According to the recent IPCC 6th assessment report, global mean sea level (GMSL) increased by 0.20 (0.15 to 0.25) m over the period 1901 to 2018 with a rate 25 of rise that has accelerated since the 1960s to 3.7 (3.2 to 4.2) mm yr-1 for the period 2006–2018. Human activity was very likely the main driver of observed GMSL rise since 1970 (IPCC WGII, 2021). The weight of the different contributions evolves with time and in the recent decades the mass change has increased, contributing to the on-going acceleration of the GMSL trend (IPCC, 2022a; Legeais et al., 2020; Horwath et al., 2022). At regional scale, sea level does not change homogenously, and regional sea level change is also influenced by various other processes, with different spatial and temporal scales, such as local ocean dynamic, atmospheric forcing, Earth gravity and vertical land motion changes (IPCC WGI, 2021). Rising sea level can strongly affect population and infrastructures in coastal areas, increase their vulnerability and risks for food security, particularly in low lying areas and island states. Adverse impacts from floods, storms and tropical cyclones with related losses and damages have increased due to sea level rise, and increase their vulnerability and increase risks for food security, particularly in low lying areas and island states (IPCC, 2019, 2022b). Adaptation and mitigation measures such as the restoration of mangroves and coastal wetlands, reduce the risks from sea level rise (IPCC, 2022c). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The altimeter mean sea level trends over the (1993/01/01, 2021/08/02) period exhibit large-scale variations at rates reaching up to more than +10 mm/yr in regions such as the western tropical Pacific Ocean. In this area, trends are mainly of thermosteric origin (Legeais et al., 2018; Meyssignac et al., 2017) in response to increased easterly winds during the last two decades associated with the decreasing Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO)/Pacific Decadal Oscillation (e.g., McGregor et al., 2012; Merrifield et al., 2012; Palanisamy et al., 2015; Rietbroek et al., 2016). Prandi et al. (2021) have estimated a regional altimeter sea level error budget from which they determine a regional error variance-covariance matrix and they provide uncertainties of the regional sea level trends. Over 1993-2019, the averaged local sea level trend uncertainty is around 0.83 mm/yr with local values ranging from 0.78 to 1.22 mm/yr. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00238

'''This product has been archived'''                For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu '''DEFINITION''' The BALTIC_OMI_TEMPSAL_sst_trend product includes the cumulative/net trend in sea surface temperature anomalies for the Baltic Sea from 1993-2021. The cumulative trend is the rate of change (°C/year) scaled by the number of years (29 years). The SST Level 4 analysis products that provide the input to the trend calculations are taken from the reprocessed product SST_BAL_SST_L4_REP_OBSERVATIONS_010_016 with a recent update to include 2021. The product has a spatial resolution of 0.02 degrees in latitude and longitude. The OMI time series runs from Jan 1, 1993 to December 31, 2021 and is constructed by calculating monthly averages from the daily level 4 SST analysis fields of the SST_BAL_SST_L4_REP_OBSERVATIONS_010_016 from 1993 to 2021. See the Copernicus Marine Service Ocean State Reports for more information on the OMI product (section 1.1 in Von Schuckmann et al., 2016; section 3 in Von Schuckmann et al., 2018). The times series of monthly anomalies have been used to calculate the trend in SST using Sen’s method with confidence intervals from the Mann-Kendall test (section 3 in Von Schuckmann et al., 2018). '''CONTEXT''' SST is an essential climate variable that is an important input for initialising numerical weather prediction models and fundamental for understanding air-sea interactions and monitoring climate change. The Baltic Sea is a region that requires special attention regarding the use of satellite SST records and the assessment of climatic variability (Høyer and She 2007; Høyer and Karagali 2016). The Baltic Sea is a semi-enclosed basin with natural variability and it is influenced by large-scale atmospheric processes and by the vicinity of land. In addition, the Baltic Sea is one of the largest brackish seas in the world. When analysing regional-scale climate variability, all these effects have to be considered, which requires dedicated regional and validated SST products. Satellite observations have previously been used to analyse the climatic SST signals in the North Sea and Baltic Sea (BACC II Author Team 2015; Lehmann et al. 2011). Recently, Høyer and Karagali (2016) demonstrated that the Baltic Sea had warmed 1-2oC from 1982 to 2012 considering all months of the year and 3-5oC when only July- September months were considered. This was corroborated in the Ocean State Reports (section 1.1 in Von Schuckmann et al., 2016; section 3 in Von Schuckmann et al., 2018). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' SST trends were calculated for the Baltic Sea area and the whole region including the North Sea, over the period January 1993 to December 2021. The average trend for the Baltic Sea domain (east of 9°E longitude) is 0.049 °C/year, which represents an average warming of 1.42 °C for the 1993-2021 period considered here. When the North Sea domain is included, the trend decreases to 0.03°C/year corresponding to an average warming of 0.87°C for the 1993-2021 period. Trends are highest for the Baltic Sea region and North Atlantic, especially offshore from Norway, compared to other regions. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00206

'''This product has been archived'''                For operationnal and online products, please visit https://marine.copernicus.eu '''DEFINITION''' The ocean monitoring indicator of regional mean sea level is derived from the DUACS delayed-time (DT-2021 version) altimeter gridded maps of sea level anomalies based on a stable number of altimeters (two) in the satellite constellation. These products are distributed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service and the Copernicus Marine Service (SEALEVEL_GLO_PHY_CLIMATE_L4_MY_008_057). The mean sea level evolution estimated in the Mediterranean Sea is derived from the average of the gridded sea level maps weighted by the cosine of the latitude. The annual and semi-annual periodic signals are removed (least square fit of sinusoidal function) and the time series is low-pass filtered (175 days cut-off). The curve is corrected for the regional mean effect of the Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) using the ICE5G-VM2 GIA model (Peltier, 2004). During 1993-1998, the Global men sea level (hereafter GMSL) has been known to be affected by a TOPEX-A instrumental drift (WCRP Global Sea Level Budget Group, 2018; Legeais et al., 2020). This drift led to overestimate the trend of the GMSL during the first 6 years of the altimetry record (about 0.04 mm/y at global scale over the whole altimeter period). A correction of the drift is proposed for the Global mean sea level (Legeais et al., 2020). Whereas this TOPEX-A instrumental drift should also affect the regional mean sea level (hereafter RMSL) trend estimation, this empirical correction is currently not applied to the altimeter sea level dataset and resulting estimated for RMSL. Indeed, the pertinence of the global correction applied at regional scale has not been demonstrated yet and there is no clear consensus achieved on the way to proceed at regional scale. Additionally, the estimate of such a correction at regional scale is not obvious, especially in areas where few accurate independent measurements (e.g. in situ)- necessary for this estimation - are available. The trend uncertainty is provided in a 90% confidence interval (Prandi et al., 2021). This estimate only considers errors related to the altimeter observation system (i.e., orbit determination errors, geophysical correction errors and inter-mission bias correction errors). The presence of the interannual signal can strongly influence the trend estimation considering to the altimeter period considered (Wang et al., 2021; Cazenave et al., 2014). The uncertainty linked to this effect is not taken into account. '''CONTEXT''' The indicator on area averaged sea level is a crucial index of climate change, and individual components contribute to sea level rise, including expansion due to ocean warming and melting of glaciers and ice sheets (WCRP Global Sea Level Budget Group, 2018). According to the recent IPCC 6th assessment report, global mean sea level (GMSL) increased by 0.20 (0.15 to 0.25) m over the period 1901 to 2018 with a rate 25 of rise that has accelerated since the 1960s to 3.7 (3.2 to 4.2) mm yr-1 for the period 2006–2018. Human activity was very likely the main driver of observed GMSL rise since 1970 (IPCC WGII, 2021). The weight of the different contributions evolves with time and in the recent decades the mass change has increased, contributing to the on-going acceleration of the GMSL trend (IPCC, 2022a; Legeais et al., 2020; Horwath et al., 2022). At regional scale, sea level does not change homogenously, and RMSL rise can also be influenced by various other processes, with different spatial and temporal scales, such as local ocean dynamic, atmospheric forcing, Earth gravity and vertical land motion changes (IPCC WGI, 2021). Rising sea level can strongly affect population and infrastructures in coastal areas, increase their vulnerability and risks for food security, particularly in low lying areas and island states. Adverse impacts from floods, storms and tropical cyclones with related losses and damages have increased due to sea level rise, and increase their vulnerability and increase risks for food security, particularly in low lying areas and island states (IPCC, 2022b). Adaptation and mitigation measures such as the restoration of mangroves and coastal wetlands, reduce the risks from sea level rise (IPCC, 2022c). Beside a clear long-term trend, the regional mean sea level variation in the Mediterranean Sea shows an important interannual variability, with a high trend observed before 1999 and lower values afterward. This variability is associated with a variation of the different forcing. Steric effect has been the most important forcing before 1999 (Fenoglio-Marc, 2002; Vigo et al., 2005). Important change of the deep-water formation site also occurred in 1995. The latest is preconditioned by an important change of the sea surface circulation observed in the Ionian Sea in 1997-1998 (e.g. Gačić et al., 2011), under the influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and negative Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) phases (Incarbona et al., 2016). They may also impact the sea level trend in the basin (Vigo et al., 2005). In 2010-2011, high regional mean sea level has been related to enhanced water mass exchange at Gibraltar, under the influence of wind forcing during the negative phase of NAO (Landerer and Volkov, 2013). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' Over the [1993/01/01, 2021/08/02] period, the basin-wide RMSL in the Mediterranean Sea rises at a rate of 2.7  0.83 mm/year. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00264

'''DEFINITION''' The global annual chlorophyll anomaly is computed by subtracting a reference climatology (1997-2014) from the annual chlorophyll mean, on a pixel-by-pixel basis and in log10 space. Both the annual mean and the climatology are computed employing ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (ESA OC-CCI, Sathyendranath et al., 2018a) global products (i.e. using the standard OC-CCI chlorophyll algorithms, OCI) as distributed by CMEMS. '''CONTEXT''' Phytoplankton – and chlorophyll concentration as a proxy for phytoplankton – respond rapidly to changes in their physical environment. Some of those changes are seasonal and are determined by light and nutrient availability (Racault et al., 2012). By comparing annual mean values to a climatology, we effectively remove the seasonal signal, while retaining information on potential events during the year. Chlorophyll anomalies can be correlated to climate indexes in particular regions, such as the ENSO index in the equatorial Pacific (Behrenfeld et al. 2006; Racault et al., 2012) and the IOD index in the Indian Ocean (Brewin et al., 2012). It is important to study chlorophyll anomalies in consonance with sea surface temperature and sea level anomalies, as increases in chlorophyll are generally consistent with decreases in SST and sea level anomalies, suggesting an increase in mixing and vertical nutrient transport (von Schuckmann et al., 2016). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The average global chlorophyll anomaly 2019 is -0.02 log10(mg m-3), with a maximum value of 1.7 log10(mg m-3) and a minimum value of -3.2 log10(mg m-3). That is to say that, in average, the annual 2019 mean value is slightly lower (96%) than the 1997-2014 climatological value. The positive signals reported in 2016 and 2017 (Sathyendranath et al., 2018b) in the southern Pacific Ocean could still be observed in the 2019 map, while the significant negative anomalies in the tropical waters of the northern Pacific Ocean were also detected to a lesser extent. Areas showing a change of anomaly sign from 2019 include the southern coast of Japan (no anomaly to positive) and the tropical Atlantic (anomalies close to zero for 2019). A marked increase in chlorophyll concentration was observed during 2019 in the Great Australian Bight, while negative anomalies became stronger in the Guatemala Basin and the region south of the Gulf of Guinea and, with values of chlorophyll reaching as low as 30% of the climatological value (anomaly < -0.5 log10(mg m-3)). The persistent positive anomalies in the higher latitudes of the North Atlantic (> 40°) match the cooling observed in the 2018 and previous years SST anomaly maps.

'''DEFINITION''' The sea level ocean monitoring indicator is derived from the DUACS delayed-time (DT-2018 version) altimeter gridded maps of sea level anomalies based on a stable number of altimeters (two) in the satellite constellation. These products are distributed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service and are also available in the CMEMS catalogue (SEALEVEL_GLO_PHY_CLIMATE_L4_REP_OBSERVATIONS_008_057). To compute the regional mean sea level during the last year, the daily sea level maps of this year are first processed to obtain anomalies referenced to the 1993-2014 period. Then, the obtained individual maps are averaged during the last year. The altimeter data have not been corrected for the effect of the Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA). '''CONTEXT''' Mean sea level evolution has a direct impact on coastal areas and is a crucial index of climate change since it reflects both the amount of heat added in the ocean and the mass loss due to land ice melt (e.g. IPCC, 2013; Dieng et al., 2017). Long-term and inter-annual variations of the sea level are observed at global and regional scales. They are related to the internal variability observed at basin scale and these variations can strongly affect population living in coastal areas. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The sea level anomaly field for 2018 compared to the 1993-2014 climatology shows a large negative anomaly in the western subtropical Pacific Ocean and a positive anomaly along the equator, likely associated with ENSO (Schiermeier 2015). Note that an opposite pattern was observed with the 2017 anomaly. In 2019, a rather negative/positive dipole is observed in the West/East subtropical Pacific (the positive equatorial anomaly observed in 2018 is no more observed westward of 160°E. While in 2016, the northward extension of the positive anomaly reached the western US coast (Legeais et al. 2018), it is reduced during 2017 and a negative anomaly is observed in this area. In 2018, this anomaly has almost disappeared and in 2019, a positive anomaly is observed along all the western coast of North and South America. The slightly negative anomaly observed north of the Gulf Stream close to Greenland in 2017 is still observed in 2018 but has a reduced signature in 2019. And the negative anomaly found in 2017 in the North Indian ocean has disappeared in 2018 and a strong East/West dipole is observed in 2019. No major evolution has been observed in the South Atlantic Ocean between 2017, 2018 and 2019. In the Mediterranean Sea, a slightly higher sea level has been observed in 2018 compared to its climatological mean over the entire basin. Such a basin-wide pattern can be related to a response to changes in mass flux through the Strait of Gibraltar forced by the wind (Fukumori et al. 2007) but also to the interannual variability observed in this region (Pinardi & Masetti 2000). Reduced anomalies are observed in 2019 in the Mediterranean Sea. In the Baltic Sea, the positive anomaly observed in 2017 has been linked to a major inflow event (Mohrholz et al. 2015) that took place in 2015-2016 and the amplitude of the Baltic sea level anomaly has strongly reduced in 2018 and 2019.