Progress in physical oceanography of the Baltic Sea during the 2003–2014 period

by A. Omstedt^,J. Elken, A. Lehmann, M. Leppäranta, H.E.M. Meier, K. Myrberg and A. Rutgersson

Highlights

•: We review the last decade’s major achievements in Baltic Sea physical oceanography.
•: Observational, gridded, and model data for the region are increasingly available.
•: Turbulence and strait flows are better understood based on high-resolution data.
•: Baltic system functioning is better understood on decadal and centennial scales.
•: Coupled Baltic Sea–North Sea systems are being better modelled.

BACCground

The BACC Blog is an open platform to exchange views and comments about the BACC project (BALTEX and Baltic Earth Assessment of Climate Change for the Baltic Sea Basin).

The regional climate change assessment report for the Baltic Sea basin was published in January 2008 (BACC Author Team, 2008). The assessment is an example for a type of urgently needed reports helping to put global climate change (as portrayed e.g. by the IPCC reports) into a regional perspective, which local stakeholders and politicians can relate to. The so called BACC (BALTEX Assessment of Climate Change for the Baltic Sea Basin) report was compiled by a consortium of 84 scientists from 13 countries around the Baltic Sea and covers various disciplines related to climate research and ecological impacts. The book is divided in chapters on past and current climate change, on projected future anthropogenic climate change, and on observed and projected impacts on terrestrial and marine ecosystems of the Baltic Sea basin. It aims to bring together consolidated (published) knowledge which has broad consensus in the scientific community. Still, this consensus may at times take the form of “consensus on dissensus”, as for certain issues, contrary opinions cannot be resolved due to insufficient scientific evidence.

An update to this first book (BACC II), authored by 141 authors from 12 countries, was published in early 2015.