Eddy kinetic energy variability from 30 years  of altimetry in the Mediterranean Sea

Hargous, Paul; Combes, Vincent; Barceló-Llull, Bàrbara; Pascual, Ananda

doi:10.5194/os-22-549-2026

Articles | Volume 22, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-22-549-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-22-549-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 1

Research article

|

12 Feb 2026

Research article |

| 12 Feb 2026

Eddy kinetic energy variability from 30 years of altimetry in the Mediterranean Sea

Paul Hargous, Vincent Combes, Bàrbara Barceló-Llull, and Ananda Pascual

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-22-549-2026-supplement

Data sets

European Seas Gridded L 4 Sea Surface Heights And Derived Variables Reprocessed 1993 Ongoing CMEMS https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00141

Global Ocean Gridded L 4 Sea Surface Heights And Derived Variables Reprocessed 1993 Ongoing CMEMS https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00148

Global Ocean Gridded L 4 Sea Surface Heights And Derived Variables Reprocessed Copernicus Climate Service CMEMS https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00145

European Seas Along Track L 3 Sea Surface Heights Reprocessed 1993 Ongoing Tailored For Data Assimilation CMEMS https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00139

Short summary

Over the last three decades, satellites have revealed rising activity of swirling ocean currents in the Mediterranean Sea. We show that the strength of this increase depends strongly on how satellite data are combined. Products that merge many satellites may give the impression of stronger changes simply because coverage improved over time. This work underlines the importance of using stable and consistent data sets to track long-term changes in ocean variability.