AI-Assisted Physical Modeling of Sun Glint to Improve Inter-Sensor Consistency of Remote Sensing Reflectance in Coastal Waters

Mediterranean coastal communities are increasingly threatened by extreme sea level events. We built an indicator combining model and observed data to summarize their changes. The analysis of their evolution revealed that the associated hazard is rising along the entire coastline, especially in the northern Adriatic, the Aegean Sea, and along Turkish and Cypriot coasts. This trend is mostly driven by sea level rise, except for the Adriatic Sea, where strong storm effects play a bigger role.

As natural hazards evolve, understanding how extreme events interact over time is crucial. While single extremes have been widely studied, joint extremes remain challenging to analyze. We present a framework that combines advanced statistical modeling with copula theory to capture changing dependencies. Applying it to historical data reveals dynamic patterns in extreme events. To support broader use, we provide an open-source tool for improved hazard assessment.

Coastal seas are strongly shaped by complex coastlines, shallow depths, and inputs from rivers, which influence marine life and water quality. This study introduces a new high-resolution modelling system that combines ocean circulation and marine ecosystem processes on unstructured grids. Applied to the northern Adriatic Sea, the model realistically captures seasonal changes in key biogeochemical variables, offering improved tools to support coastal environmental management.

We improved a computer model to simulate coastal flooding by including temporary barriers like sand dunes. We tested it where sand dunes are built seasonally to protect the shoreline for two real storms: one that broke through the dunes and another where dunes held strong. Our model showed how important it is to design these defenses carefully since even if a small part of a dune fails, a major flooding can happen. Overall, our work helps create better tools to manage and protect coastal areas.

Using the same sea surface temperature and the same bulk formula but different atmospheric reanalysis and analysis surface-variable datasets, we show that a higher-resolution dataset is crucial for evaluating the heat-budget closure hypothesis in the Mediterranean Sea. For the first time, we investigate the impact of extreme heat-loss events in the Mediterranean Sea by computing the long-term, basin-averaged mean heat budget.