Orographic Influences on the Adriatic Sirocco Wind
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Ann. Geophys., 25, 1263–1267, 2007 www.ann-geophys.net/25/1263/2007/ Annales © European Geosciences Union 2007 Geophysicae Orographic influences on the Adriatic sirocco wind Z. Pasaric,´ D. Belusiˇ c,´ and Z. B. Klaic´ Department of Geophysics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia Received: 7 December 2006 – Revised: 16 April 2007 – Accepted: 21 May 2007 – Published: 29 June 2007 Abstract. Differences between meteorological fields over A multitude of studies of the bora wind point to the crucial the Adriatic Sea as predicted by the mesoscale meteorolog- role of the influence that the orography, namely the Dinaric ical model ALADIN/HR and global ECMWF model, for Alps, exerts on the incoming airflow from the northeast (e.g. sirocco episodes between November 2002 and September Klaic´ et al., 2003; Belusiˇ c´ and Klaic,´ 2006). The surface jets 2003, are analysed. Results indicate that the orography, and wakes are shown to be related to the mountain gaps and namely Gargano Mountains and Apennines, may have a sig- peaks, respectively (e.g. Belusiˇ c´ and Klaic,´ 2006), and their nificant effect on the sirocco airflow. A brief discussion is effect on the Adriatic Sea has been extensively documented given on the impact of the sirocco wind curl on the Western (e.g. Orlic´ et al., 1994; Pullen et al., 2003). However, the Adriatic Current (WAC). sirocco wind has received much less attention, particularly concerning the orographic effects. This is, to a certain extent, Keywords. Meteorology and atmospheric dynamics understandable because the sirocco blows along the Adriatic (Mesoscale meteorology) – Oceanography: physical (Air- and apparently has little interaction with the nearby mountain sea interactions) ranges (the Dinaric Alps and Apennines), which are also ori- ented in the along-shore direction. The Adriatic sirocco (lo- cally called “jugo”) is a branch of the Mediterranean sirocco 1 Introduction and is sometimes differentiated from it due to specific lo- cal effects. It is generated by larger scale, usually synoptic Operational oceanography of the Mediterranean Sea has re- weather patterns, but may also be due to mesoscale cyclone ceived significant attention in recent years (e.g. http://www. activity (Brzovic,´ 1999; Brzovic´ and Strelec Mahovic,´ 1999). moon-oceanforecasting.eu). As one of the goals, a numeri- It can be classified under two general categories: cyclonic cal forecasting system at basin, regional and shelf scales has and anticyclonic sirocco. The more frequent, cyclonic type been developed. The Adriatic Sea, in particular, is covered is related to the low pressure field northwest of the affected by a regional hydrodinamical model and several shelf models area which usually corresponds to the Genoa cyclone (Jurcecˇ (Castellari, 2003), where the necessary boundary conditions et al., 1996). Anticyclonic sirocco is primarily forced by the are prescribed by simple one-way nesting between respective high pressure field above the Mediterranean. models (Zavatarelli and Pinardi, 2003). Due to operational In the present paper, the differences between the ECMWF constraints in the early stage of the efforts, the atmospheric fields and the corresponding output of the mesoscale mete- forcing has been taken from the global ECMWF model hav- orological model ALADIN (Geleyn et al., 2002) are anal- ing 0.5 degrees longitude and latitude resolution, which is far ysed. The results point to the possibly significant effect of from enough to resolve fine structure of the Adriatic weather, the mountain obstacles, namely the Gargano Mountains and known to be strongly influenced by local orography (e.g. the Apennines, on the sirocco airflow over the western part of Grubisiˇ c,´ 2004). The two most prominent types of Adri- the middle to northern Adriatic. The effect seems persistent atic weather, namely those characterized by strong bora and and hence may produce a significant forcing on the Adriatic strong sirocco winds, have so far received quite a different Sea, unresolved in the coarse resolution models. Possible at- treatment. The bora is a northeasterly, relatively cold and mospheric influence on the Western Adriatic Current (WAC) gusty downslope windstorm blowing over the east Adriatic. reversal, which is known to appear during episodes of sirocco Correspondence to: Z. Pasaric´ wind (e.g. Poulain et al., 2004) is also discussed. ([email protected]) Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 1264 Z. Pasaric´ et al.: Orographic influences on the Adriatic sirocco wind ALADIN topography ECMWF topography Relative humidity Air temperature Air pressure−1000 46 46 46 46 46 45 45 44 44 44 44 44 43 43 42 42 42 42 42 40 40 40 15 20 15 20 15 20 Latitude [deg] 41 41 65 70 75 80 [%] 16 17 18 [oC] 8 10 12 14 [hPa] 40 40 39 39 12 14 16 18 20 12 14 16 18 20 Wind speed NE−wind NW−wind Longitude [deg] Longitude [deg] 46 46 46 44 44 44 0 500 1000 1500 250 500 750 1000 Height [m] Height [m] 42 42 42 Fig. 1. ALADIN and ECMWF orography. The actual coastline 40 40 40 15 20 15 20 15 20 is shown in grey. The 0.5 degrees ECMWF grid is shown on the right panel. The height levels shown are 20, 50, 100, 200, 400, 6 8 10 12 [m/s] 0 5 10 [m/s] 0 5 10 [m/s] 600, . m. Fig. 2. ALADIN mean fields over the 63 sirocco episodes. 2 Methods Relative humidity Air temperature Air pressure 46 46 46 The Croatian version of the operational mesoscale meteoro- 44 44 44 logical model ALADIN is run at the Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service at a horizontal resolution of 8 km 42 42 42 (e.g. Ivatek-Sahdanˇ and Tudor, 2004). Initial and boundary 40 40 40 conditions are provided by the Meteo-France global model 15 20 15 20 15 20 ARPEGE. The ALADIN output fields are given every 3 h. −6 −3 0 3 [%] 1 2 [oC] −0.4−0.2 0 0.2 0.4[hPa] The period from 1 November 2002 till 30 September 2003 is investigated in this study. The associated ECMWF fields, Wind speed NE−wind NW−wind available every 6 h, are trilinearly interpolated onto the AL- 46 46 46 ADIN space-time grid. In order to extract sirocco situations 44 44 44 three characteristic grid points are chosen in the northern part, and three in the southern part of the Adriatic. A total of 42 42 42 63 episodes are extracted as all instances where the six grid 40 40 40 points have a wind from the fourth quadrant stronger than 15 20 15 20 15 20 −1 8 m s . The threshold is chosen after some trial and error, 0 1 2 3 [m/s] −2 0 2 [m/s] −2 0 2 [m/s] but having in mind that winds over 8 m s−1 exert a strong in- fluence on the sea. Mean differences between ALADIN and Fig. 3. ALADIN-ECMWF mean differences over the 63 sirocco ECMWF modelled fields are calculated over these sirocco episodes. episodes. what smaller than those at the east coast. Again they are 3 Results found close to the Italian coast and spread offshore around the Gargano peninsula. Due to the finer spatial resolution and consequently more re- The air pressure differences between the models (Fig. 3) alistic land-sea mask and orography (Fig. 1) ALADIN mod- are shaped as large contiguous areas of the same sign with elled fields are considered as referent (Fig. 2). Inspection amplitudes up to 2 hPa. The ECMWF model generally un- of mean differences between ECMWF and ALADIN fields derestimates the air pressure over the northern Adriatic and (Fig. 3) reveals that over the major part of the Adriatic the along the middle and southern east Adriatic coast. On the ECMWF model underestimates air temperatures. The dis- other hand, the ECMWF predicted pressure is generally crepancies are the largest in the vicinity of the east coast higher than in the ALADIN along the Italian coast south of where they reach 3◦C. This is primarily associated with the Ancona. The region where the overprediction is particularly differences between the land-sea masks of the two mod- wide in the offshore direction extends from Ancona to the els. The largest discrepancies at the west coast are some- Gargano peninsula. Ann. Geophys., 25, 1263–1267, 2007 www.ann-geophys.net/25/1263/2007/ Z. Pasaric´ et al.: Orographic influences on the Adriatic sirocco wind 1265 43 Latent heat flux Wind stress 46 46 42.5 45 45 44 44 42 200 800 43 43 1000 41.5 800 42 42 600 8 400 00 41 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 41 41 40 40 12 14 16 18 20 12 14 16 18 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 −4 Wind speed [m/s] Wind curl [1/s] x 10 −20 −10 0 10 20 30 [W/m2] 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 [N/m2] Fig. 4. ALADIN surface wind field (vectors and shaded; left panel) and surface wind curl (shaded; right panel) at 00:00 UTC on 28 Fig. 5. ALADIN-ECMWF mean differences for latent heat flux and December 2002 for the Gargano area. Orography contours shown wind stress (vectors and shaded) over the 63 sirocco episodes. are the same as in Fig. 1. Mountains appears behind the highest peak (∼800 m at the A comparison between the ALADIN and the ECMWF ALADIN resolution). A trace of a weaker jet resulting from predicted sirocco winds shows discrepancies that are gener- the flow splitting is located on the eastern side of the Gargano ally oriented along the main airflow direction.