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The 2022--2023 heat wave in the Mediterranean as seen at the Lampedusa Climate Observatory.
di Sarra A., Anello F., Bommarito C., Cinelli G., De Silvestri L., Di Iorio T., Marullo S., Meloni D., Monteleone F., Pace G., Pecci M., Piacentino S., Sferlazzo D.M.
In the period May 2022--early April 2023 various regions of the Mediterranean were characterized by anomalously high temperatures, associated with an intense and long-lasting atmospheric and marine heat wave taking place in the central and western basins. The wide set of high-quality measurements obtained at the integrated Lampedusa Climate Observatory has been used to characterize the event and investigate the processes which contributed to the heat wave. In particular, linkages between atmospheric and oceanic processes have been investigated. The heat budget components at the surface of the ocean have been calculated using measurements carried out at the Lampedusa Atmospheric and Oceanographic Observatories, and suggest that the latent heat in particular has played a significant role in determining the heat gain at the surface. Few intense wind episodes, relatively unfrequent during summer 2022, appear to have induced vertical mixing and heat redistribution in the ocean, leading to high ocean temperatures throughout a significant fraction of the water column. Possible connections and influences on the carbon cycle will be also discussed.