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Cruise Report, RV ATAIR, Cruise 0671013-1, Bremerhaven - Skagen - Aberdeen, 19 Jul - 11 Aug 2022

3.

Oceanographic Conditions in Summer 2022

The BSH produces and provides a comprehensive weekly analysis of sea surface temperatures
 (see  https:/Awww.bsh.de/EN/DATA/Climate-and-Sea/Sea_temperatures/Sea_surface_temperatures/sea_surface_temperatures_node.html).
 This approach combines all measurements
 collected from time series stations and ships with satellite data and uses statistical
methods and spatial interpolation to generate a comprehensive data set. This contains estimates
 for the weekly mean values of sea surface temperature as a raster data set with a spatial
resolution (pixel size) of 20 km x 20 km.

30°N

1.5

57°N

54°N

1

—_
(S)
ne
3

40.5

|

0

-0.5

D
=
E
U
SE

1

1.5

51°N

35W

}

°F

at

2

Figure 6.1. Spatial distribution of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies for the summer months of
2022 (June, July and August). Anomalies are shown relative to a climatological mean SST field comprising
 the summers of the years 1997-2021, Le. 25 years. Source: BSH.

Information from this blended analysis SST analysis for the summer months of 2022 (June,
July and August) reveals a region of pronounced warming in the southern and south-western
North Sea (see Figure 6.1). The centre of this region was located at about 53°30’N off the
aastern British coast, stretching from the English Channel to around 55°30’N. Here, SSTs were
1.5°C to 1.75°C warmer than the 1997-2021 climatological summer mean. The north-eastern
and eastern halves of the North Sea showed a moderate warming with temperature anomalies
mostly below +0.5°C. Only the region north of 60°N was slightly cooler than the climatological
summer mean. Thus, almost the entire North Sea was warmer than average in summer 2022.