Wave Power Trends over the Mediterranean Sea Based on Innovative Methods and 60-Year ERA5 Reanalysis

Abstract

The present study aims to evaluate long-term wave power (Pwave) trends over the Mediterranean Sea using innovative and classical trend analysis techniques, considering the annual and seasonal means. For this purpose, the data were selected for the ERA5 reanalysis with 0.5° × 0.5° spatial resolution and 1 h temporal resolution during 60 years between 1962 and 2021. Spatial assessment of the annual and seasonal trends was first performed using the innovative trend analysis (ITA) and Mann–Kendall (MK) test. To obtain more detailed information, innovative polygon trend analysis (IPTA), improved visualization of innovative trend analysis (IV-ITA), and star graph methods were applied to annual, seasonal, and monthly mean Pwave at 12 stations selected. The results allow us to identify an increasing trend above the 10% change rate with the innovative method and above the 95% confidence level with the Mann–Kendall test in mean wave power in the Levantine basin and the Libyan Sea at all timescales. The use of various innovative methods offered similar results in certain respects and complemented each other.