Summer warming trends in Western Europe are increasing the incidence, intensity and duration of heat waves. They are especially deadly in large cities owing to population density, physical surface properties, anthropogenic heat and pollutants. In August 2003, for 9 consecutive days, the Paris metropolitan area experienced an extreme heat wave that caused 4867 estimated heat‐related deaths. A set of 61 NOAA‐AVHRR (advanced very high‐resolution radiometer) images and one SPOT‐high resolution visible (HRV) image were used to analyse the spatial variations of land surface temperature (LST) over the diurnal cycle during the heat wave. The LST patterns were markedly different between daytime and night‐time. A heat island was centred downtown at night, whereas multiple temperature anomalies were scattered in the industrial suburbs during the day. The heat wave corresponded to elevated nocturnal LST compared to normal summers. The highest mortality ratios matched the spatial distribution of the highest night‐time LSTs, but were not related to the highest daytime LSTs. LSTs were sampled from images at the addresses of 482 elderly people (half were deceased persons and half were control ones) to produce daily and cumulative minimal, maximal and mean thermal indicators, over various periods of time. These indicators were integrated into a conditional logistic regression model to test their use as heat exposure indicators, based on risk factors. Over the period 1–13 August, thermal indicators taking into account minimum nocturnal temperatures averaged over 7 days or over the whole period were significantly linked to mortality. These results show the extent of the spatial variability in urban climate variables and the impact of night‐time temperatures on excess mortality. These results should be used to inform policy and contingency planning in relation to heat waves, and highlight the role that satellite remote sensing can play in documenting and preventing heat‐related mortality. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society

The OceanGliders program started in 2016 to support active coordination and enhancement of global glider activity. OceanGliders contributes to the international efforts of the Global Ocean Observation System (GOOS) for Climate, Ocean Health, and Operational Services. It brings together marine scientists and engineers operating gliders around the world: (1) to observe the long-term physical, biogeochemical, and biological ocean processes and phenomena that are relevant for societal applications; and, (2) to contribute to the GOOS through real-time and delayed mode data dissemination. The OceanGliders program is distributed across national and regional observing systems and significantly contributes to integrated, multi-scale and multi-platform sampling strategies. OceanGliders shares best practices, requirements, and scientific knowledge needed for glider operations, data collection and analysis. It also monitors global glider activity and supports the dissemination of glider data through regional and global databases, in real-time and delayed modes, facilitating data access to the wider community. OceanGliders currently supports national, regional and global initiatives to maintain and expand the capabilities and application of gliders to meet key global challenges such as improved measurement of ocean boundary currents, water transformation and storm forecast.

Drifter observations and satellite-derived sea surface height data are used to quantitatively study the surface geostrophic circulation of the entire Mediterranean Sea for the period spanning 1992–2010. After removal of the wind-driven components from the drifter velocities and low-pass filtering in bins of 1° × 1° × 1 week, maps of surface geostrophic circulation (mean flow and kinetic energy levels) are produced using the drifter and/or satellite data. The mean currents and kinetic energy levels derived from the drifter data appear stronger/higher with respect to those obtained from satellite altimeter data. The maps of mean circulation estimated from the drifter data and from a combination of drifter and altimeter data are, however, qualitatively similar. In the western basin they show the main pathways of the surface waters flowing eastward from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Sicily Channel and the current transporting waters back westward along the Italian, French, and Spanish coasts. Intermittent and long-lived subbasin-scale eddies and gyres abound in the Tyrrhenian and Algerian Seas. In the eastern basin, the surface waters are transported eastward by several currents but recirculate in numerous eddies and gyres before reaching the northward coastal current off Israel, Lebanon, and Syria and veering westward off Turkey. In the Ionian Sea, the mean geostrophic velocity maps were also produced separately for the two extended seasons and for multiyear periods. Significant variations are confirmed, with seasonal reversals of the currents in the south and changes of the circulation from anticyclonic (prior to 1 July 2007) to cyclonic and back to anticyclonic after 31 December 2005.