New climate change warning: from May 2022 to May 2023, the Mediterranean experienced the longest heat wave on record in 40 years, with sea temperatures rising by up to 4°C and peaking at over 23°C. The worst affected part was the western basin. This is the finding of the CAREHeat project, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), in which ENEA and CNR (coordinator) are participating for Italy, and whose results have been published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. CAREHeat's research activities began with the study of the heat wave that affected the Mediterranean Sea starting with the analysis of satellite data that first detected the thermal anomaly, with much higher values than in the previous heat wave of 2003. The satellite information was then integrated with data from observations available on site at the Lampedusa Climate Station, which is the only outpost in Europe that can provide information on the interactions between vegetation, atmosphere and ocean, both in carbon exchanges and in all the processes and energy exchanges that regulate the region's climate.
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