Medicanes in an ocean–atmosphere coupled regional climate model
Author:
Akhtar N.ORCID, Brauch J., Dobler A., Béranger K., Ahrens B.ORCID
Abstract
Abstract. So-called medicanes (Mediterranean hurricanes) are meso-scale, marine, and warm-core Mediterranean cyclones that exhibit some similarities to tropical cyclones. The strong cyclonic winds associated with medicanes threaten the highly populated coastal areas around the Mediterranean basin. To reduce the risk of casualties and overall negative impacts, it is important to improve the understanding of medicanes with the use of numerical models. In this study, we employ an atmospheric limited-area model (COSMO-CLM) coupled with a one-dimensional ocean model (1-D NEMO-MED12) to simulate medicanes. The aim of this study is to assess the robustness of the coupled model in simulating these extreme events. For this purpose, 11 historical medicane events are simulated using the atmosphere-only model, COSMO-CLM, and coupled model, with different setups (horizontal atmospheric grid-spacings of 0.44°, 0.22°, and 0.08°; with/without spectral nudging, and an ocean grid-spacing of 1/12°). The results show that at high-resolution, the coupled model is able to not only simulate most of medicane events but also improve the track length, core temperature, and wind speed of simulated medicanes compared to the atmosphere-only simulations. The results suggest that the coupled model is more proficient for systemic and detailed studies of historical medicane events, and that this model can be an effective tool for future projections.
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
Reference40 articles.
1. Akhtar, N.: New approach with a basin-wide single column ocean model set-up to study the Mediterranean Sea dynamics, Master's Thesis, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 2013. 2. Artale, V., Calmanti, S., Carillo, A., Dell'Aquila, A., Herrmann, M., Pisacane, G., Ruti, Sannino, G., Struglia, M. V., Giorgi, F., Bi, X., Pal, J. S., Rauscher, S., and The PROTHEUS Group: An atmosphere-ocean regional climate model for the Mediterranean area: assessment of a present climate simulation, Clim. Dyn., 35, 721–740, 2010. 3. Businger, S. and Reed, R.: Cyclogenesis in cold air masses, Weather Forecast., 20, 133–156, 1989. 4. Cavicchia, L. and von Storch, H.: The simulation of medicanes in a high-resolution regional climate model, Clim. Dynam., 39, 2273–2290, 2012. 5. Cavicchia, L., von Storch, H. and Gualdi, S.: A long-term climatology of medicanes, Clim. Dyn., 101, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1893-7, 2013.
Cited by
2 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献
|
|