Melisa Menéndez García

Responsable del Grupo de Clima Marino y Cambio Climático

Investigadora Principal

melisa.menendez@unican.es

+34 942 20 16 16 Ext. 56204

 

Biografía

Melisa Menéndez García es investigadora del Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de la Universidad de Cantabria (IHCantabria) y profesora en la Universidad de Cantabria. Lidera el grupo ‘Clima Marino y Cambio Climático’ y el equipo IHData del Instituto e imparte docencia en el área de Ingeniería Hidráulica de la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos de la Universidad de Cantabria.

Licenciada en Ciencias del Mar por la Universidad de Cádiz (2001), realiza el máster en Ciencias y Tecnologías para la Gestión de la Costa (2003) y se doctora en la Universidad de Cantabria (2008), recibiendo el premio extraordinario de doctorado en el área de enseñanzas técnicas por la universidad (2010). Ha realizado estancias de investigación en centros de reconocido prestigio, como Scripps Institute of Oceanography (UC San Diego), Hydrologic Research Center (HRC, California), National Oceanography Centre (Reino Unido) o University of Hawaii Sea Level Center. Obtiene una plaza Ramón y Cajal (2016-2021) para después formalizar su plaza de profesora contratada doctora I3 en la universidad de Cantabria.

Melisa ha desarrollado su investigación en el ámbito del clima marítimo, costero y en aguas abiertas, especializándose en el análisis de las condiciones meteorológicas y oceanográficas (prioritariamente sobre las variables de oleaje, nivel del mar y viento marino). Ha desarrollado nuevas metodologías para el estudio de la variabilidad climática y el efecto del cambio climático sobre el clima marino, y ha proporcionado información climática relevante, a escala regional y global. Sus investigaciones se basan tanto en el análisis y procesado de medidas instrumentales (in-situ o procedentes de satélite) como simuladas mediante el empleo de modelos numéricos estado del arte (WRF, WaveWatchIII, ADCIRC). Se destacan sus investigaciones sobre eventos extremos climáticos.

Melisa ha dirigido 5 tesis doctorales y ha sido la Investigadora Principal en proyectos competitivos financiados por el gobierno de España y la Unión Europea. Además, ha participado en más de 30 proyectos de investigación y transferencia, muchos de ellos internacionales. Fruto de sus investigaciones es autora en más de 70 publicaciones científicas, ha impartido múltiples ponencias en congresos y conferencias, y ha contribuido en diversos documentos y guías científico-técnicos para organismos internacionales o estatales.

LÍNEAS DE INVESTIGACIÓN

Análisis estadístico de valores extremos.

Caracterización met-ocean de las condiciones ambientales.

Desarrollo de métodos de downscaling (regionalización), mediante modelado o uso de inteligencia artificial.

Desarrollo de reconstrucciones históricas y proyecciones de variables climáticas.

Descripción de la variabilidad climática para diferentes escalas espacio-temporales.

Estudio de eventos de tormenta/asociados a ciclogénesis.

Evaluación de las condiciones de peligrosidad en zonas costeras.

Modelización de dinámicas marinas y atmosféricas.

Procesado y análisis de medidas satelitales e in-situ.

pUBLiCACIOnES

Global coastal wave storminess (2024). Scientific Reports. 10.1038/s41598-024-51420-0

Storm surges and extreme sea levels: Review, establishment of model intercomparison and coordination of surge climate projection efforts (SurgeMIP) (2024) Weather and Climate Extremes. 10.1016/j.wace.2024.100689

Variability Assessment of Global Extreme Coastal Sea Levels Using Altimetry Data (2024). Remote Sensing. 10.3390/rs16081355

Changing wind-generated waves in the Red Sea during 64 years (2024) Ocean Engineering. 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2024.116994

A worldwide coastal analysis of the climate wave systems (2024) Frontiers in Marine Science. 10.3389/fmars.2024.1385285

Wind-wave climate changes and their impacts (2024) Nature Reviews Earth and Environment. 10.1038/s43017-023-00502-0

On the assessment of the wave modeling uncertainty in wave climate projections (2023) Environmental Research Letters. 10.1088/1748-9326/ad0137

A global evaluation of the JONSWAP spectra suitability on coastal areas (2022) Ocean Engineering. 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2022.112756

Global ocean wave fields show consistent regional trends between 1980 and 2014 in a multi-product ensemble (2022) Communications Earth and Environment. 10.1038/s43247-022-00654-9

Exploring the Climatic Potential of Somo’s Surf Spot for Tourist Destination Management (2022). Sustainability. 10.3390/su14148496

The effect of climate change on wind-wave directional spectra (2022) Global and Planetary Change. 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2022.103820

Climate Change Impact on the Offshore Wind Energy Over the North Sea and the Irish Sea (2022). Frontiers in Energy Research. 10.3389/fenrg.2022.881146

Future behavior of wind wave extremes due to climate change (2021) Scientific Reports. 10.1038/s41598-021-86524-4

On the decreases in North Atlantic significant wave heights from climate projections (2021) Climate Dynamics. 10.1007/s00382-021-05807-8

Remote climate change propagation across the oceans – The directional swell signature (2021). Environmental Research Letters. 10.1088/1748-9326/ac046b

Projections of Directional Spectra Help to Unravel the Future Behavior of Wind Waves (2021). Frontiers in Marine Science. 10.3389/fmars.2021.655490

Climate change effects on marine renewable energy resources and environmental conditions for offshore aquaculture in Europe (2020) ICES Journal of Marine Science. 10.1093/icesjms/fsaa226

Statistical prediction of extreme storm surges based on a fully supervised weather-type downscaling model (2020). Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. 10.3390/jmse8121028

On the need of bias correction methods for wave climate projections (2020). Global and Planetary Change. 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2019.103109

Bias-corrected cmip5-derived single-forcing future wind-wave climate projections toward the end of the twenty-first century (2020). Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. 10.1175/JAMC-D-19-0297.1

Robustness and uncertainties in global multivariate wind-wave climate projections (2019) Nature Climate Change 10.1038/s41558-019-0542-5

Ecological typologies of large areas. An application in the Mediterranean Sea (2018) Journal of Environmental Management 10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.09.058

Exploring changes in Caribbean hurricane-induced wave heights (2018) Ocean Engineering 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2018.05.032

Measuring currents, ice drift, and waves from space: The Sea surface KInematics Multiscale monitoring (SKIM) concept (2018) Ocean Science 10.5194/os-14-337-2018

The “Crossover” project: Wave overtopping under directionally bimodal wave attack (2018) Proceedings of the Coastal Engineering Conference 10.5194/os-14-337-2018

Toward a Methodology for Estimating Coastal Extreme Sea Levels From Satellite Altimetry (2018) Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 10.1029/2018JC014487

Wind speed variability over the Canary Islands, 1948–2014: focusing on trend differences at the land–ocean interface and below–above the trade-wind inversion layer (2018) Climate Dynamics 10.1007/s00382-017-3861-0

GOW2: A global wave hindcast for coastal applications (2017) Coastal Engineering 10.1016/j.coastaleng.2017.03.005

State of the climate in 2016 (2017) Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 10.1175/2017BAMSStateoftheClimate.1

Statistical wave climate projections for coastal impact assessments (2017) Earth’s Future 10.1002/2017EF000609

In tide’s way: Southeast Florida’s September 2015 sunny-day flood (2016) Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0117.1

Atmosphere-ocean linkages in the eastern equatorial Pacific over the early Pleistocene (2016) Paleoceanography 10.1002/2015PA002883

CoCoNet: Towards coast to coast networks of marine protected areas (From the shore to the high and deep sea), coupled with sea-based wind energy potential (2016) SCIRES-IT 10.2423/i22394303v6Sp1

Long-term changes in the frequency, intensity and duration of extreme storm surge events in southern Europe (2016) Climate Dynamics 10.1007/s00382-015-2659-1

State of the climate in 2015 (2016) Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 10.1175/2016BAMSStateoftheClimate.1

Towards a global higher-frequency sea level dataset (2016) Geoscience Data Journal 10.1002/gdj3.42

A new procedure for the lithic fraction characterization in marine sediments from high productivity areas: Optimization of analytical and statistical procedures (2015) Limnology and Oceanography: Methods 10.1002/lom3.10013

Changes in the mesoscale variability and in extreme sea levels over two decades as observed by satellite altimetry (2015) Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 10.1002/2014JC010363

Parameterization of unresolved obstacles in wave modelling: A source term approach (2015) Ocean Modelling 10.1016/j.ocemod.2015.05.004

State of the climate in 2014 (2015) Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 10.1175/2015bamsstateoftheclimate.1

Statistical multi-model climate projections of surface ocean waves in Europe (2015) Ocean Modelling 10.1016/j.ocemod.2015.06.001

A high resolution hindcast of the meteorological sea level component for Southern Europe: the GOS dataset (2014) 10.1007/s00382-013-2041-0

A method for finding the optimal predictor indices for local wave climate conditions (2014) Ocean Dynamics 10.1007/s10236-014-0737-2

A weather-type statistical downscaling framework for ocean wave climate (2014) Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 10.1002/2014JC010141

A wind chart to characterize potential offshore wind energy sites (2014) Computers and Geosciences 10.1016/j.cageo.2014.01.008

Changing extreme sea levels along European coasts (2014) Coastal Engineering 10.1016/j.coastaleng.2013.10.017

ESTELA: A method for evaluating the source and travel time of the wave energy reaching a local area (2014) Ocean Dynamics 10.1007/s10236-014-0740-7

Evaluating the performance of CMIP3 and CMIP5 global climate models over the north-east Atlantic region (2014) Climate Dynamics 10.1007/s00382-014-2078-8

High-resolution sea wind hindcasts over the Mediterranean area (2014) Climate Dynamics 10.1007/s00382-013-1912-8

State of the climate in 2013 (2014) Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 10.1175/2014BAMSStateoftheClimate.1

Wave climate projections along the French coastline: Dynamical versus statistical downscaling methods (2014) 10.1016/j.ocemod.2014.09.002

State of the climate in 2012 (2013) Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 10.1175/2013BAMSStateoftheClimate.1

A Global Ocean Wave (GOW) calibrated reanalysis from 1948 onwards (2012) Coastal Engineering 10.1016/j.coastaleng.2012.03.003

Exploring the interannual variability of extreme wave climate in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean (2012) Ocean Modelling 10.1016/j.ocemod.2012.09.007

Impacts on the deep-sea ecosystem by a severe coastal storm (2012) PLoS ONE 10.1371/journal.pone.0030395

A methodology to evaluate regional-scale offshore wind energy resources (2011) OCEANS 2011 IEEE – Spain 10.1109/Oceans-Spain.2011.6003595

Directional calibrated wind and wave reanalysis databases using instrumental data for optimal design of off-shore wind farms (2011) OCEANS 2011 IEEE – Spain 10.1109/Oceans-Spain.2011.6003592

Evaluation of global wave energy resource (2011) OCEANS 2011 IEEE – Spain 10.1109/Oceans-Spain.2011.6003523

Evidence for Century-Timescale Acceleration in Mean Sea Levels and for Recent Changes in Extreme Sea Levels (2011) Surveys in Geophysics.  10.1007/s10712-011-9112-8

Global extreme wave height variability based on satellite data (2011) Geophysical Research Letters 10.1029/2011GL047302

Changes in extreme high water levels based on a quasi-global tide-gauge data set (2010) Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 10.1029/2009JC005997

Extreme wave climate variability in southern Europe using satellite data (2010) Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 10.1029/2009JC005802, 2010

Is the extreme wave climate in the NE Pacific increasing? (2010) MTS/IEEE Seattle, OCEANS 2010 10.1109/OCEANS.2010.5664314

Pseudo-optimal parameter selection of non-stationary generalized extreme value models for environmental variables (2010) Environmental Modelling and Software 10.1016/j.envsoft.2010.05.008

Sensitivity analysis of time-dependent generalized extreme value models for ocean climate variables (2010) Environmental Modelling and Software 10.1016/j.advwatres.2010.05.003

Forecasting seasonal to interannual variability in extreme sea levels (2009) ICES Journal of Marine Science 10.1093/icesjms/fsp095

Introducing marine climate variability into life cycle management of coastal and offshore structures (2009) OCEANS ’09 IEEE Bremen: Balancing Technology with Future Needs 10.1109/OCEANSE.2009.5278207

The influence of seasonality on estimating return values of significant wave height (2009) Coastal engineering 10.1016/j.coastaleng.2008.07.004

Seasonality and duration in extreme value distributions of significant wave height (2008) Ocean Engineering 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2007.07.012

Variability of extreme wave heights in the northeast Pacific Ocean based on buoy measurements (2008) Geophysical Research Letters 10.1029/2008GL035394

An extreme value model for wave climate considering duration and seasonality (2007) Proceedings of the Coastal Engineering Conference 10.1029/2008GL035394

Analyzing monthly extreme sea levels with a time-dependent GEV model (2007) Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 10.1175/JTECH2009.1

Application of a POT model to estimate the extreme significant wave height levels around the Balearic Sea (Western Mediterranean) (2007) Journal of Coastal Research 10.1175/JTECH2009.1

Estimation of the long-term variability of extreme significant wave height using a time-dependent Peak Over Threshold (POT) model (2006) Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 10.1029/2005JC003344

The effect of temporal dependence on the estimation of the frequency of extreme ocean climate events (2006) Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 10.1098/rspa.2005.1652