As part of the ObsSea4Clim Annual Meeting and Clustering Event, a dedicated hackathon on Marine Heatwaves (MHWs) took place on March 10-11, 2023, bringing together experts and early-career scientists to refine our understanding of MHWs definitions. The opportunity to meet in person in Sopot created perfect conditions to work efficiently together and advance the work of the MHW application area team in the project. The project partners from India joined the event virtually, ensuring that no expertise within the project was missed!

In two hands-on sessions, the scientists explored how different MHW definitions impact our interpretation of trends, event characteristics, and long-term climate assessments. With growing interest from organizations like Copernicus, the discussion also focused on standardizing MHW indicators to ensure their relevance for future climate monitoring.

Key outcomes

The hackathon was instrumental in advancing the work on MHW in ObsSea4Clim and broadly for the MHW research community. Among others, the hackathon contributed with:

• Development of a new high-resolution global dataset comparing various climate-relevant MHW definitions.
• Initial steps toward establishing a framework for defining standardized MHW indicators, improving consistency in climate reporting.
• A valuable, hands-on learning experience for early-career scientists, fostering collaboration within the team.

This hackathon demonstrated the power of hands-on collaboration and generated exciting results that advanced our work on understanding and defining MHWs. ObsSea4Clim work in this area aims to improve marine heatwave monitoring and pave the way more informed decision-making on ocean changes.