QuickSCAT observations of extreme wind events over the Mediterranean and Black Seas during 2000–2008

A total of 9 years (2000–2008) of QuickSCAT hi-resolution (12.5 × 12.5 km) surface wind observations are employed to identify seasonal means and extreme (gale-force) events over the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The Gulf of Lyon and the Aegean Sea are the regions with the highest sustained wind magnitudes throughout the year. Conversely, the lowest winds are found over the Tyrrhenian, the northern Adriatic and the eastern Black Seas. During winter, the Gulf of Lyon and the Aegean portray mean wind magnitudes ranging from 7 to 11 m/s. During summer, the Aegean Sea portrays the highest wind magnitudes over the entire study area. The lowest wind magnitudes during summer are encountered over the Tyrrhenian, northern Adriatic, eastern Black and eastern Mediterranean Seas (3–6 m/s). From the entire (2000–2008) observations, each QuickSCAT observation exceeding 20 m/s is considered an extreme event. For all the registered extreme events during 2000–2008, we calculate (1) 2-D maps of seasonal frequency occurrence and (2) the histograms of wind directions for ten sub-regions encompassed in the study area (Gulf of Lyon, Balearic Sea, Ligurian Sea, Tyrrhenian Sea, North African coast, Adriatic Sea, Ionian Sea, Aegean Sea, Eastern Mediterranean and Black Seas). Results pertaining to the frequency occurrence show coincidence between high (low) seasonal mean and extreme event frequency occurrence for the areas such as the Gulf of Lyon and the Aegean Sea (Tyrrhenian/southeastern Black Seas). In addition, it is shown that for several cases (Gulf of Lyon, Aegean Sea) the dominant wind direction of extreme events substantially differentiates from the seasonal mean wind directions. Finally we investigate the linearity of extreme event occurrence in terms of mean wind speed climatology over the sub-regions encompassing the study area. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society

[1]  T. Guymer.  A review of Seasat scatterometer data , 1983, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

[2]  Palomares Losada.  Analysis of the meteorological synoptic situations that affect the Straits of Gibraltar and their influence on the surface wind , 1999 .

[3]  L. Cavaleri,et al.  Wind wave cast in the Mediterranean Sea , 1991 .

[4]  Ad Stoffelen,et al.  Validation of Two-Dimensional Variational Ambiguity Removal on SeaWinds Scatterometer Data , 2009 .

[5]  P. May.  Climatological Flux Estimates in the Mediterranean Sea. Part I. Winds and Wind Stresses , 1982 .

[6]  A. Speranza,et al.  Offshore wind climatology over the Mediterranean basin , 2006 .

[7]  A. Flocas.  Frontal depressions over the Mediterranean sea and Central Southern Europe , 1988 .

[8]  Andrea Bergamasco,et al.  Baroclinic Response of the Adriatic Sea to an Episode of Bora Wind , 1996 .

[9]  C. Dorman,et al.  Winds in the strait of gibraltar , 1995 .

[10]  P. Maheras.  Le problème des Etésiens , 1980 .

[11]  Other,et al.  Mediterranean climate variability , 2006 .

[12]  C. Garrett,et al.  Interannual Variability in Mediterranean Heat and Buoyancy Fluxes , 1993 .

[13]  Vlad Isakov,et al.  A case study of bora-driven flow and density changes on the adriatic shelf (January 1987) , 2001 .

[14]  C. Anagnostopoulou,et al.  On the vertical structure of composite surface cyclones in the Mediterranean region , 2002 .

[15]  R. Barry,et al.  Icelandic low cyclone activity : Climatological features, linkages with the NAO, and relationships with recent changes in the Northern Hemisphere circulation , 1997 .

[16]  A. Sanna,et al.  Mediterranean wave climate variability and its links with NAO and Indian Monsoon , 2005 .

[17]  R. Trigo,et al.  Objective climatology of cyclones in the Mediterranean region: a consensus view among methods with different system identification and tracking criteria , 2016 .

[18]  C. Estournel,et al.  Observation and modeling of the winter coastal oceanic circulation in the Gulf of Lion under wind conditions influenced by the continental orography (FETCH experiment) , 2003 .

[19]  M. Collins,et al.  Seasonal variability in sea surface oceanographic conditions in the Aegean Sea (Eastern Mediterranean): an overview , 1997 .

[20]  Kostas Lagouvardos,et al.  The effect of the island of Crete on the Etesian winds over the Aegean Sea , 2001 .

[21]  W. Timothy Liu,et al.  Evaluation of high-resolution ocean surface vector winds measured by QuikSCAT scatterometer in coastal regions , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[22]  Dudley B. Chelton,et al.  A Global Climatology of Surface Wind and Wind Stress Fields from Eight Years of QuikSCAT Scatterometer Data , 2008 .

[23]  J. E. Peak,et al.  A Meteorological Fuzzy Expert System Incorporating Subjective User Input , 2002, Knowledge and Information Systems.

[24]  Stefano Zecchetto,et al.  Sea Surface Winds over the Mediterranean Basin from Satellite Data (2000–04): Meso- and Local-Scale Features on Annual and Seasonal Time Scales , 2007 .

[25]  Christophe Accadia,et al.  Comparison of 10-m Wind Forecasts from a Regional Area Model and QuikSCAT Scatterometer Wind Observations over the Mediterranean Sea , 2007 .

[26]  Mark A. Bourassa,et al.  SeaWinds validation with research vessels , 2003 .

[27]  C. Anagnostopoulou,et al.  A 40‐year climatological study of relative vorticity distribution over the Mediterranean , 2001 .

[28]  D. Offiler.  The Calibration of ERS-1 Satellite Scatterometer Winds , 1994 .

[29]  C. Anagnostopoulou,et al.  A 40 year objective climatology of surface cyclones in the Mediterranean region: spatial and temporal distribution , 2001 .