Accurate ocean forecasting is essential for supporting a wide range of marine applications. Recent advances in artificial intelligence have highlighted the potential of data-driven models to outperform traditional numerical approaches, particularly in atmospheric weather forecasting. However, extending these methods to ocean systems remains challenging due to their inherently slower dynamics and complex boundary conditions. In...

Introduction The Venice Lagoon is increasingly vulnerable to extreme storm surges, with the Experimental Electromechanical Module (MoSE) movable barrier system serving as its primary defense mechanism. Methods This study presents a novel approach to modeling storm surge dynamics in the Venice Lagoon by incorporating an immersed boundary (IB) method within the SHYFEM-MPI ocean circulation model to simulate the effects of MoSE b...

Mediterranean coastal ecosystems are increasingly threatened by multiple anthropogenic pressures and climate change. As a result, these impacts have caused the decline of key endemic habitats such as Posidonia oceanica meadows and coralligenous reefs. Due to the slow natural recovery of these habitats after degradation, restoration actions play a key role in accelerating ecosystem recovery, reestablishing ecological structure...

The sustainability of the blue economy is at risk due to the harmful effects of marine plastic pollution on aquatic ecosystems and coastal communities. Plastics release toxic chemicals into the environment, pollute coastlines, and harm fisheries, aquaculture, and shellfish beds. The practical implementation of the recently proposed Integrated Marine Debris Observing System requires comprehensive knowledge of pollution inputs,...

Coastal zones face growing threats from climate change, including sea-level rise and intensified storm activity. Accurate numerical modelling is essential to predict the impacts of anthropogenic and climate stressors on the coastal zone. However, it is also a very challenging environment due to complex coastlines, rapid topographic changes, and high spatial-temporal variability. Unstructured grid models offer a promising solut...

The study of climate change and its impact on coastal areas has become increasingly important in recent years and understanding how storm surges and extreme events affect water levels in transitional and coastal zones has become a crucial aspect. The main objective of this work is to develop a low-cost, easy-to-install device capable of accurately measuring sea and river water levels, along with basic meteorological variables...

This study investigates the effects of a two-way wave–circulation coupled modeling framework during extreme weather events, with a particular focus on Medicane Ianos, one of the most intense cyclones to have occurred in the Mediterranean Sea. By utilizing a high-resolution unstructured numerical grid, the study explores wave–current interactions in both open-ocean and coastal environments. To this scope, we developed the first...

Understanding how sea turtle species move through the environment and respond to environmental features is fundamental for sustainable ecosystem management and effective conservation. This study investigates the habitat suitability of the loggerhead sea turtle ( Caretta caretta ) in the Adriatic and Northern Ionian Seas (Central-Eastern Mediterranean) by developing and validating a multidisciplinary framework that leverages ma...

This study analyzed the past wave climate of the Black Sea region for the period from 1988 to 2021. The wave field has been simulated using the state-of-the-art, third-generation wave model WAVEWATCH III forced by the ECMWF reanalysis ERA5 winds, with the model resolution being the highest ever applied to the region in a basin-scale climate study. The surface currents provided by the Copernicus Marine Service have been include...

The Mediterranean Forecasting System produces operational analyses and reanalyses and 10 d forecasts for many essential ocean variables (EOVs), from currents, temperature, salinity, and sea level to wind waves and pelagic biogeochemistry. The products are available at a horizontal resolution of 1/24∘ (approximately 4 km) and with 141 unevenly spaced vertical levels. The core of the Mediterranean Forecasting System is constitut...

The second-largest oil pollution incident in the Eastern Mediterranean Levantine basin, following the oil pollution crisis in Lebanon in 2006, is considered to be the oil leakage from the Syrian Baniyas power plant (summer 2021), during which 12,000 tons of oil were released. At the operational phase, the everyday predictions of oil drift were provided using the MEDSLIK and MEDSLIK-II models in the framework of an agreement be...

This work describes the design, implementation and validation of the Black Sea physics analysis and forecasting system, developed by the Black Sea Physics production unit within the Black Sea Monitoring and Forecasting Center as part of the Copernicus Marine Environment and Monitoring Service. The system provides analyses and forecasts of the temperature, salinity, sea surface height, mixed layer depth and currents for the who...

The Black Sea Monitoring and Forecasting Center (BS-MFC) is the European reference service for the provision of ocean analyses, forecasts, and reanalyses in the Black Sea basin. It is part of the Copernicus Marine Environment and Monitoring Service (CMEMS) and ensures a high level of efficiency in terms of operations, science, and technology for predictions and the monitoring of physical and biogeochemical processes in the Bla...

Ocean reanalyses are becoming increasingly important to reconstruct and provide an overview of the ocean state from the past to the present-day. In this article, we present a Black Sea reanalysis covering the whole satellite altimetry era. In the scope of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service, the Black Sea reanalysis system is produced using an advanced variational data assimilation method to combine the best a...

In this study, we investigate wave-currents interaction for the first time in the Black Sea, implementing a coupled numerical system based on the ocean circulation model NEMO v4.0 and the third-generation wave model WaveWatchIII v5.16. The scope is to evaluate how the waves impact the surface ocean dynamics, through assessment of temperature, salinity and surface currents. We provide also some evidence on the way currents may...

The Turkish Strait System, which is the only connection between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, is a challenging region for ocean circulation models due to topographic constraints and water mass structure. We present a newly developed high resolution unstructured finite element grid model to simulate the Turkish Strait System using realistic atmospheric forcing and lateral open boundary conditions. We find that the je...

In January 2020, the storm Gloria hit the Western Mediterranean Sea causing severe coastal damages, destruction of infrastructures, flooding and several casualties. This extreme event was characterized by strong Eastern winds, record-breaking waves heights and periods, and a storm surge that locally beat the record along Valencia’s coastline. This paper analyses the dynamic evolution of sea level during this storm. The study e...

High-impact ocean weather events and climate extremes can have devastating effects on coastal zones and small islands. Marine Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is a systematic approach to such events, through which the risk of disaster can be identified, assessed and reduced. This can be done by improving ocean and atmosphere prediction models, data assimilation for better initial conditions and developing an efficient and sustain...

Carbon intensity of ship emissions is a cornerstone of contemporary regulatory actions, with measurable targets of reduction being enforced in the coming decade. Short term measures to achieve them include voyage optimization. Therefore, the VISIR ship routing model was upgraded for computing least-CO2 routes depending on ocean analysis products related to waves and sea currents. The speed loss in waves and the CO2 emission ra...