Individuazione di onde di calore nel mar Adriatico da osservazioni satellitari di temperatura superficiale: applicazione di due diversi approcci.

Ocean temperature variability is a fundamental component of the Earth’s climate system, and extremes in this variability affect the health of marine ecosystems around the world. The study of marine heatwaves (MHWs) has emerged as a rapidly growing field of research, given notable extreme warm-water events have occurred against a background trend of global ocean warming. Hence, their correct detection and characterization is crucial to define future impact scenarios, along with adaptation and marine management approaches. Here, using daily satellite observations of Adriatic Sea surface temperature we detect MHWs over the last 41 years (1982-2022) and evaluate the trend-induced effects on MHWs properties by analysing their evolution in terms of frequency, intensity, and duration. Our results show that the presence of a trend in surface seawater temperature can drive MHW detection toward more intense and frequent MHW events. Conversely, the same detection method applied to detrended SST data do not present any significant change in MHW characteristics over time. Detrending thus allows to distinguish long-term warming (i.e., trend) from transient and abrupt SST changes without overestimating MHW properties over time.