Melisa Menéndez García
Head of Marine Climate and Climate Change
Main Researcher
+34 942 20 16 16 Ext. 56204
Biography
Melisa Menéndez García is a researcher at the Environmental Hydraulics Institute of Cantabria (IHCantabria) and professor at the University of Cantabria (UC). She leads the ‘Marine Climate and Climate Change’ group and the IHData team of this institute and teaches in the area of Hydraulic Engineering at the School of Civil Engineering of the UC.
Graduated in Marine Sciences from the University of Cádiz (2001), she completed a master’s degree in Sciences and Technologies for Coastal Management (2003) and obtained a doctorate from the University of Cantabria (2008), receiving the extraordinary doctorate award at the area of technical education at the university (2010). She has carried out research stays in prestigious centers, such as Scripps Institute of Oceanography (UC San Diego), Hydrologic Research Center (HRC, California), National Oceanography Center (United Kingdom) or University of Hawaii Sea Level Center. She obtained a Ramón y Cajal position (2016-2021) to later formalize her position as a doctor I3 contract professor at the University of Cantabria.
Melisa has developed her research in the field of maritime, coastal and open water climate, specializing in the analysis of meteorological and oceanographic conditions (primarily on the variables of waves, sea level and marine wind). She has developed new methodologies for the study of climate variability and the effect of climate change on marine climate, and has provided relevant climate information, on a regional and global scale. Her research is based both on the analysis and processing of instrumental measurements (in-situ or from satellite) and simulated through the use of state-of-the-art numerical models (WRF, WaveWatchIII, ADCIRC). Her research on extreme climate events is notable.
Melisa has supervised 5 doctoral theses and has been the Principal Investigator in competitive projects funded by the government of Spain and the European Union. In addition, she has participated in more than 30 research and transfer projects, many of them international. As a result of her research, she is the author of more than 70 scientific publications, she has given multiple presentations at congresses and conferences, and she has contributed to various scientific-technical documents and guides for international or state organizations.
RESEARCH LINES
Statistical analysis of extreme values.
Met-ocean characterization of environmental conditions.
Development of downscaling (regionalization) methods, through modeling or use of artificial intelligence.
Development of historical reconstructions and projections of climate variables.
Description of climate variability for different spatio-temporal scales.
Study of storm events/associated with cyclogenesis.
Evaluation of dangerous conditions in coastal areas.
Modeling of marine and atmospheric dynamics.
Processing and analysis of satellite and in-situ measurements.
PUBLICATIONS
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
