For four weeks in May and June this year, Maurice Huguenin was fortunate enough to take part in an oceanographic research voyage aboard CSIRO’s RV Investigator from Hobart to Brisbane.
CLEX researchers found coastal marine heatwave hotspots were concentrated along the Mediterranean Sea, Japan Sea, south‐eastern Australia and the north‐eastern coast of the United States. They also found the frequency of these events and their duration globally increased by 1–2 events per decade and 5–20 days per decade. Most of the marine heatwave hotspots identified were associated with high upward trends.
High resolution ocean modelling has found the world’s strongest ocean currents, which play key roles in fisheries and ocean ecosystems, will experience more intense marine heatwaves than the global average over coming decades.
Marine heatwaves that impact southeast Australia could be forecast years in advance, with important implications for fisheries and the environment in this region
Gabriela Pilo and colleagues find that the Tasman Front is not so much a constant current, as is widely accepted, but switches between being an extension of the East Australian Current and an eddy field.
An unusually strong East Australian Current extension leads to an increased probability of marine heatwave days around Tasmania. Conversely, a strong Zeehan Current during these seasons decreased the probability of marine heatwave days in this region.