'''DEFINITION''' The OMI_EXTREME_WAVE_IBI_swh_mean_and_anomaly_obs indicator is based on the computation of the 99th and the 1st percentiles from in situ data (observations). It is computed for the variable significant wave height (swh) measured by in situ buoys. The use of percentiles instead of annual maximum and minimum values, makes this extremes study less affected by individual data measurement errors. The percentiles are temporally averaged, and the spatial evolution is displayed, jointly with the anomaly in the target year. This study of extreme variability was first applied to sea level variable (Pérez Gómez et al 2016) and then extended to other essential variables, sea surface temperature and significant wave height (Pérez Gómez et al 2018). '''CONTEXT''' Projections on Climate Change foresee a future with a greater frequency of extreme sea states (Stott, 2016; Mitchell, 2006). The damages caused by severe wave storms can be considerable not only in infrastructure and buildings but also in the natural habitat, crops and ecosystems affected by erosion and flooding aggravated by the extreme wave heights. In addition, wave storms strongly hamper the maritime activities, especially in harbours. These extreme phenomena drive complex hydrodynamic processes, whose understanding is paramount for proper infrastructure management, design and maintenance (Goda, 2010). In recent years, there have been several studies searching possible trends in wave conditions focusing on both mean and extreme values of significant wave height using a multi-source approach with model reanalysis information with high variability in the time coverage, satellite altimeter records covering the last 30 years and in situ buoy measured data since the 1980s decade but with sparse information and gaps in the time series (e.g. Dodet et al., 2020; Timmermans et al., 2020; Young & Ribal, 2019). These studies highlight a remarkable interannual, seasonal and spatial variability of wave conditions and suggest that the possible observed trends are not clearly associated with anthropogenic forcing (Hochet et al. 2021, 2023). In the North Atlantic, the mean wave height shows some weak trends not very statistically significant. Young & Ribal (2019) found a mostly positive weak trend in the European Coasts while Timmermans et al. (2020) showed a weak negative trend in high latitudes, including the North Sea and even more intense in the Norwegian Sea. For extreme values, some authors have found a clearer positive trend in high percentiles (90th-99th) (Young, 2011; Young & Ribal, 2019). '''COPERNICUS MARINE SERVICE KEY FINDINGS''' The mean 99th percentiles showed in the area present a wide range from 2-3.5m in the Canary Island with 0.1-0.3 m of standard deviation (std), 3.5m in the Gulf of Cadiz with 0.5m of std, 3-6m in the English Channel and the Irish Sea with 0.5-0.6m of std, 4-7m in the Bay of Biscay with 0.4-0.9m of std to 8-10m in the West of the British Isles with 0.7-1.4m of std. Results for this year show slight negative anomalies in the Canary Island (-0.4/0.0m) and in the Gulf of Cadiz (-0.8m) barely out of the standard deviation range in both areas, slight positive or negative anomalies in the West of the British Isles (-0.6/+0.4m) and in the English Channel and the Irish Sea (-0.6/+0.3m) but inside the range of the standard deviation and a general positive anomaly in the Bay of Biscay reaching +1.0m but close to the limit of the standard deviation. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00250

'''DEFINITION''' The temporal evolution of thermosteric sea level in an ocean layer (here: 0-700m) is obtained from an integration of temperature driven ocean density variations, which are subtracted from a reference climatology (here 1993-2014) to obtain the fluctuations from an average field. The annual mean thermosteric sea level of the year 2017 is substracted from a reference climatology (1993-2014) at each grid point to obtain a global map of thermosteric sea level anomalies in the year 2017, expressed in millimeters per year (mm/yr). '''CONTEXT''' Most of the interannual variability and trends in regional sea level is caused by changes in steric sea level (Oppenheimer et al., 2019). At mid and low latitudes, the steric sea level signal is essentially due to temperature changes, i.e. the thermosteric effect (Stammer et al., 2013, Meyssignac et al., 2016). Salinity changes play only a local role. Regional trends of thermosteric sea level can be significantly larger compared to their globally averaged versions (Storto et al., 2018). Except for shallow shelf sea and high latitudes (> 60° latitude), regional thermosteric sea level variations are mostly related to ocean circulation changes, in particular in the tropics where the sea level variations and trends are the most intense over the last two decades. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' Higher-than-average thermosteric sea level is reported over most areas of the global ocean and the European regional seas in 2018. In some areas – e.g. the western boundary current regions of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean in both hemispheres reach values of more than 0.2 m. There are two areas of lower-than-average thermosteric sea level, which stand out from the generally higher-than-average conditions: the western tropical Pacific, and the subpolar North Atlantic. The latter is linked to the so called “North Atlantic cold event” which persists since a couple of years (Dubois et al., 2018). However, its signature has significantly reduced compared to preceding years.

'''DEFINITION''' Based on daily, global climate sea surface temperature (SST) analyses generated by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) (product SST-GLO-SST-L4-REP-OBSERVATIONS-010-024). Analysis of the data was based on the approach described in Mulet et al. (2018) and is described and discussed in Good et al. (2020). The processing steps applied were: 1. The daily analyses were averaged to create monthly means. 2. A climatology was calculated by averaging the monthly means over the period 1991 - 2020. 3. Monthly anomalies were calculated by differencing the monthly means and the climatology. 4. The time series for each grid cell was passed through the X11 seasonal adjustment procedure, which decomposes a time series into a residual seasonal component, a trend component and errors (e.g., Pezzulli et al., 2005). The trend component is a filtered version of the monthly time series. 5. The slope of the trend component was calculated using a robust method (Sen 1968). The method also calculates the 95% confidence range in the slope. '''CONTEXT''' Sea surface temperature (SST) is one of the Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) defined by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) as being needed for monitoring and characterising the state of the global climate system (GCOS 2010). It provides insight into the flow of heat into and out of the ocean, into modes of variability in the ocean and atmosphere, can be used to identify features in the ocean such as fronts and upwelling, and knowledge of SST is also required for applications such as ocean and weather prediction (Roquet et al., 2016). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' Warming trends occurred over most of the globe between 1982 and 2024, with the strongest warming in the Northern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. However, there were cooling trends in parts of the Southern Ocean and the South-East Pacific Ocean. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00243

'''DEFINITION''' The OMI_EXTREME_SL_IBI_slev_mean_and_anomaly_obs indicator is based on the computation of the 99th and the 1st percentiles from in situ data (observations). It is computed for the variable sea level measured by tide gauges along the coast. The use of percentiles instead of annual maximum and minimum values, makes this extremes study less affected by individual data measurement errors. The annual percentiles referred to annual mean sea level are temporally averaged and their spatial evolution is displayed in the dataset omi_extreme_sl_ibi_slev_mean_and_anomaly_obs, jointly with the anomaly in the target year. This study of extreme variability was first applied to sea level variable (Pérez Gómez et al 2016) and then extended to other essential variables, sea surface temperature and significant wave height (Pérez Gómez et al 2018). '''CONTEXT''' Sea level (SLEV) is one of the Essential Ocean Variables most affected by climate change. Global mean sea level rise has accelerated since the 1990’s (Abram et al., 2019, Legeais et al., 2020), due to the increase of ocean temperature and mass volume caused by land ice melting (WCRP, 2018). Basin scale oceanographic and meteorological features lead to regional variations of this trend that combined with changes in the frequency and intensity of storms could also rise extreme sea levels up to one meter by the end of the century (Vousdoukas et al., 2020, Tebaldi et al., 2021). This will significantly increase coastal vulnerability to storms, with important consequences on the extent of flooding events, coastal erosion and damage to infrastructures caused by waves (Boumis et al., 2023). The increase in extreme sea levels over recent decades is, therefore, primarily due to the rise in mean sea level. Note, however, that the methodology used to compute this OMI removes the annual 50th percentile, thereby discarding the mean sea level trend to isolate changes in storminess. The Iberian Biscay Ireland region shows positive sea level trend modulated by decadal-to-multidecadal variations driven by ocean dynamics and superposed to the long-term trend (Chafik et al., 2019). '''COPERNICUS MARINE SERVICE KEY FINDINGS''' The completeness index criteria is fulfilled by 62 stations in 2023, five more than those available in 2022 (57), recently added to the multi-year product INSITU_GLO_PHY_SSH_DISCRETE_MY_013_053. The mean 99th percentiles reflect the great tide spatial variability around the UK and the north of France. Minimum values are observed in the Irish eastern coast (e.g.: 0.66 m above mean sea level in Arklow Harbour) and the Canary Islands (e.g.: 0.93 and 0.96 m above mean sea level in Gomera and Hierro, respectively). Maximum values are observed in the Bristol Channel (e.g.: 6.25 and 5.78 m above mean sea level in Newport and Hinkley, respectively), and in the English Channel (e.g.: 5.16 m above mean sea level in St. Helier). The annual 99th percentiles standard deviation reflects the south-north increase of storminess, ranging between 1-3 cm in the Canary Islands to 15 cm in Hinkley (Bristol Channel). Negative or close to zero anomalies of 2023 99th percentile prevail throughout the region this year, reaching < -20 cm in several stations of the UK western coast and the English Channel (e.g.: -22 cm in Newport; -21 cm in St.Helier). Significantly positive anomaly of 2023 99th percentile is only found in Arcklow Harbour, in the eastern Irish coast. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00253