All official European Union website addresses are in the europa.eu domain.
See all EU institutions and bodiesDo something for our planet, print this page only if needed. Even a small action can make an enormous difference when millions of people do it!
Sea surface temperature (SST) is a key indicator of climate change in the ocean. SST represents the temperature of sea water at or near the surface over different timescales (e.g. seasonally and annually).
Note that different methods have been used historically to measure SST (ships, buoys and satellites), which requires careful consideration when building homogeneous data sets.
Index factsheet (ETC/CCA Technical Paper): Sea surface temperature
The index is easy to interpret and provides information for a variety of applications, mostly related to marine ecosystems and fisheries. Increasing SSTs in coastal areas can trigger algal blooms and outbreaks of vibrio bacteria, which can negatively affect human health and recreation.
Annual mean SST has increased in all European regional seas since 1870, particularly since the late 1970s.
Further increases are projected in the future, and these could exceed 3 °C by the end of the 21st century under the high-emissions scenario (representative concentration pathway (RCP)8.5). The greatest increases are projected for the Arctic Ocean, the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, whereas smaller SST increases are projected for the Atlantic Ocean.
Further information (EEA indicator assessment): European sea surface temperature
Notes: The black line shows the annual values for 1979-2018 from reanalysis data, and the dashed horizontal line shows the mean for 1986-2005. Solid grey, blue, yellow and red lines represent the ensemble median of model simulations for the historical period and under low-, medium- and high-emissions scenarios (RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively) (smoothed by a 20-year moving average). Shaded areas show the 15th and 85th percentile ranges of the model ensemble. The size of the model ensemble used for each scenario is shown by the coloured numbers in the top-right corner. European seas include all sea surfaces within 25 °W-50 °E and 34 °N-75 °N.
Source: ERA5 and bias-adjusted CMIP5 data.
Notes: The top panel shows the 1986-2005 mean values based on the reanalysis. The central row shows the 15th and 85th percentiles of projected values for near and far future. The projected changes compared with the 1986-2005 reference period are reported on the bottom row.
Source: ERA5 and bias-adjusted CMIP5 data.
Chapters of the Europe's changing climate hazards report
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/europes-changing-climate-hazards-1/open-ocean/open-ocean-mean-ocean-temperature or scan the QR code.
PDF generated on 08 Oct 2024, 11:27 PM
Engineered by: EEA Web Team
Software updated on 26 September 2023 08:13 from version 23.8.18
Software version: EEA Plone KGS 23.9.14
Document Actions
Share with others