scholarly journals Drought Analysis in Europe and in the Mediterranean Basin Using the Standardized Precipitation Index

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1043 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommaso Caloiero ◽  
Simone Veltri ◽  
Paola Caloiero ◽  
Francesco Frustaci
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Precipitation Index ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Full Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Global Precipitation Climatology Centre ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

In this study, drought events over a large area of the Northern Hemisphere, including continental Europe, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the Mediterranean basin, were analyzed using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) at various times scales (3, 6, 12, and 24 months). To this purpose, the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) Full Data Monthly Product Version 2018 data set, with spatial resolutions of 0.5° longitude/latitude and for the period 1951–2016, has been used. First, the temporal evolution of the percentage of grid points, falling within the severe and extreme drought categories, has been evaluated. Then, a trend analysis has been performed at a seasonal scale, considering the autumn-winter and the spring-summer periods, and at an annual scale. The results of this paper highlight that the Mediterranean basin and North Africa are the most consistently vulnerable areas showing a general reduction in SPI values especially for the long time scale.

scholarly journals Origin and transport of Mediterranean moisture and air

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 5089-5105 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Schicker ◽  
S. Radanovics ◽  
P. Seibert
Keyword(s):  
Residence Time ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Trade Wind ◽  
Trajectory Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Mediterranean Regions ◽  
Diagnosis Method ◽  
Seasonal Basis ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

Abstract. Considering the Mediterranean as a region of high evaporation and low precipitation, evaluations of sinks and sources of moisture and precipitation in the Mediterranean basin have been carried out within the frame of the CIRCE (Climate Change and Impact Research: the Mediterranean Environment) project. Besides these evaluations, residence time and stagnation/ventilation analyses have been carried out to investigate transport to and from the Mediterranean basin and in the basin itself. A Lagrangian moisture diagnosis method calculating budgets of evaporation minus precipitation was applied to a 5.5 year (October 1999–April 2005) trajectory data set and evaluated for eight representative Mediterranean Regions Of Interest (ROI). The Mediterranean basin has been identified as a major source of moisture and precipitation to the surrounding land area and to the basin itself. Main regions of stagnation, i.e. the Po basin, have been defined on a seasonal basis through residence time analysis. Evaluation of the transport to and from the basin shows that the Mediterranean is a crossroad of airstreams where air enters mainly from the northwest and continues in two separate streams, one going southwest over North Africa into the trade wind zone and the other one to the northeast through Central Asia.

Seasonal ecosystem vulnerability to climatic anomalies in the Mediterranean

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Ecosystem Productivity ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Ecosystem Vulnerability ◽  
Dry Conditions ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

<p>The ecosystems of the Mediterranean Basin are particularly prone to climate change and related alterations in climatic anomalies. The seasonal timing of climatic anomalies is crucial for the assessment of the corresponding ecosystem impacts; however, the incorporation of seasonality is neglected in many studies. We quantify ecosystem vulnerability by investigating deviations of the climatic drivers temperature and soil moisture during phases of low ecosystem productivity for each month of the year over the period 1999 – 2019. The fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) is used as a proxy for ecosystem productivity. Air temperature is obtained from the reanalysis data set ERA5 Land and soil moisture and FAPAR satellite products are retrieved from ESA CCI and Copernicus Global Land Service, respectively. Our results show that Mediterranean ecosystems are vulnerable to three soil moisture regimes during the course of the year. A phase of vulnerability to hot and dry conditions during late spring to midsummer is followed by a period of vulnerability to cold and dry conditions in autumn. The third phase is characterized by cold and wet conditions coinciding with low ecosystem productivity in winter and early spring. These phases illustrate well the shift between a soil moisture-limited regime in summer and an energy-limited regime in winter in the Mediterranean Basin. Notably, the vulnerability to hot and dry conditions during the course of the year is prolonged by several months in the Eastern Mediterranean compared to the Western Mediterranean. Our approach facilitates a better understanding of ecosystem vulnerability at certain stages during the year and is easily transferable to other study areas and ecoclimatological variables.</p>

scholarly journals Lightning-ignited wildfires and long-continuing-current lightning in the Mediterranean Basin: Preferential meteorological conditions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Pérez-Invernón ◽  
Heidi Huntrieser ◽  
Sergio Soler ◽  
Francisco J. Gordillo-Vázquez ◽  
Nicolau Pineda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Meteorological Conditions ◽  
Precipitation Rate ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Fire Emissions ◽  
Forecasting Models ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

Abstract. Lightning is the major cause of natural ignition of wildfires worldwide and produces the largest wildfires in some regions. Lightning strokes produce about 5 % of forest fires in the Mediterranean basin and are one of the most important precursors of the largest forest fires during the summer. Lightning-ignited wildfires produce significant emissions of aerosols, black carbon and trace gases, such as CO, SO2, CH4 and O3, affecting air quality. Characterization of the meteorological and cloud conditions of lightning-ignited wildfires in the Mediterranean basin can serve to improve fire forecasting models and to upgrade the implementation of fire emissions in atmospheric models. This study investigates the meteorological and cloud conditions of Lightning-Ignited Wildfires (LIW) and Long-Continuing-Current (LCC) lightning flashes in the Iberian Peninsula and Greece. LCC lightning and lightning in dry thunderstorms with low precipitation rate have been proposed to be the main precursors of the largest wildfires. We use lightning data provided by the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN), the Earth Network Total Lightning Network (ENTLN) and the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) onboard the International Space Station (ISS) together with four databases of wildfires produced in Spain, Portugal, Southern France and Greece, respectively, in order to produce a climatology of LIW and LCC lightning over the Mediterranean basin. In addition, we use meteorological data provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5-reanalysis data set and by the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) together with the Cloud Top Height (CTH) product derived from Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites measurements to investigate the meteorological conditions of LIW and LCC lightning. According to our results, LIW and a significant amount of LCC lightning flashes tend to occur in dry thunderstorms with weak updrafts. Our results suggest that lightning-ignited wildfires tend to occur in high-based clouds with a vertical content of moisture lower than the climatological value, as well as with a higher temperature and a lower precipitation rate. Meteorological conditions of LIW from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece are in agreement, although some differences possibly caused by highly variable topography in Greece and a more humid environment are observed. These results show the possibility of using the typical meteorological and cloud conditions of LCC lightning flashes as proxy to parameterize the ignition of wildfires in atmospheric or forecasting models.

scholarly journals Origin and transport of Mediterranean moisture and air

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 21425-21461
Author(s):  
I. Schicker ◽  
S. Radanovics ◽  
P. Seibert
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Trade Wind ◽  
Trajectory Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Sources And Sinks ◽  
Four Seasons ◽  
Mediterranean Regions ◽  
Diagnosis Method ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

Abstract. Considering the Mediterranean as a region of high evaporation and low precipitation, evaluations of the moisture and precipitation sources and sinks in the Mediterranean basin have been carried out within the frame of the CIRCE project. In addition, residence time and stagnation/ventilation have been analysed to investigate transport to and from the Mediterranean basin and in the basin itself. A Lagrangian moisture diagnosis method calculating budgets of evaporation minus precipitation was applied to a 5.5 year (October 1999–April 2005) trajectory data set and evaluated for eight Mediterranean regions of interest. The Mediterranean basin has been identified as a major source of moisture and precipitation to the surrounding land area and to the basin itself. Regions of stagnation have been identified through the analysis of the average 24-hour and 5-day displacements for the four seasons, and the Po basin was identified as being strongly affected by stagnation. Evaluation of the transport to and from the basin shows that the Mediterranean is a crossroad of airstreams where air enters mainly from the northwest and continues in two separate airstreams: one turns towards southwest, passing over North Africa into the trade wind zone while the other one continues northeastwards through Central Asia.

scholarly journals Daily standardized precipitation index with multiple time scale for monitoring water deficit across the mainland China from 1961 to 2018

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qianfeng Wang ◽  
Rongrong Zhang ◽  
Yanping Qu ◽  
Jingyu Zeng ◽  
Xiaoping Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Social Economy ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Precipitation Index ◽  
Agricultural Drought ◽  
Multiple Time ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Drought Assessment ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
The Standardized Precipitation Index

Abstract. With the increasing shortage of water resources, drought has become one of the hot issues in the world. The standardized precipitation index (SPI) is one of the widely used drought assessment indicators because of its simple and effective calculation method, but it can only assess drought events more than one month. We developed a new multi-scale daily SPI dataset to make up for the shortcomings of the commonly used SPI and meet the needs of drought types at different time scales. Taking three typical stations in Henan, Yunnan and Fujian Province as examples, the drought events identified by SPI with different scales were consistent with the historical drought events recorded. Meanwhile, we took the 3-month scale SPI of soil and agricultural drought as an example, and analyzed the characteristics of drought events in 484 stations in Chinese mainland. The results showed that most of the drought events the mainland China did not increase significantly, and some parts of the northwestern Xinjiang and Northeast China showed signs of gradual relief. In short, our daily SPI data set is freely available to the public on the website https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14135144, and can effectively capture drought events of different scales. It can also meet the needs of drought research in different fields such as meteorology, hydrology, agriculture, social economy, etc.

scholarly journals Lightning-ignited wildfires and long continuing current lightning in the Mediterranean Basin: preferential meteorological conditions

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (23) ◽  
pp. 17529-17557
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Pérez-Invernón ◽  
Heidi Huntrieser ◽  
Sergio Soler ◽  
Francisco J. Gordillo-Vázquez ◽  
Nicolau Pineda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Meteorological Conditions ◽  
Precipitation Rate ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Fire Emissions ◽  
Forecasting Models ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

Abstract. Lightning is the major cause of the natural ignition of wildfires worldwide and produces the largest wildfires in some regions. Lightning strokes produce about 5 % of forest fires in the Mediterranean Basin and are one of the most important precursors of the largest forest fires during the summer. Lightning-ignited wildfires produce significant emissions of aerosols, black carbon, and trace gases, such as CO, SO2, CH4, and O3, affecting air quality. Characterization of the meteorological and cloud conditions of lightning-ignited wildfires in the Mediterranean Basin can serve to improve fire forecasting models and to upgrade the implementation of fire emissions in atmospheric models. This study investigates the meteorological and cloud conditions of lightning-ignited wildfires (LIWs) and long continuing current (LCC) lightning flashes in the Iberian Peninsula and Greece. LCC lightning and lightning in dry thunderstorms with a low precipitation rate have been proposed to be the main precursors of the largest wildfires. We use lightning data provided by the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN), the Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN), and the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on board the International Space Station (ISS), together with four databases of wildfires produced in Spain, Portugal, southern France, and Greece, respectively, in order to produce a climatology of LIWs and LCC lightning over the Mediterranean Basin. In addition, we use meteorological data provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5 reanalysis data set and by the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), together with the Cloud Top Height product (CTHP) derived from Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites measurements to investigate the meteorological conditions of LIWs and LCC lightning. According to our results, LIWs and a significant amount of LCC lightning flashes tend to occur in dry thunderstorms with weak updrafts. Our results suggest that LIWs tend to occur in clouds with a high base and with a vertical content of moisture lower than the climatological value, as well as with a higher temperature and a lower precipitation rate. Meteorological conditions of LIWs from the Iberian Peninsula and Greece are in agreement, although some differences possibly caused by the highly variable topography in Greece and a more humid environment are observed. These results show the possibility of using the typical meteorological and cloud conditions of LCC lightning flashes as proxy to parameterize the ignition of wildfires in atmospheric or forecasting models.

scholarly journals The GPCC Drought Index – a new, combined and gridded global drought index

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ziese ◽  
U. Schneider ◽  
A. Meyer-Christoffer ◽  
K. Schamm ◽  
J. Vido ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drought Index ◽  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Regular Grid ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Precipitation Climatology ◽  
Global Precipitation Climatology Centre ◽  
The Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Global Precipitation ◽  
Climate Prediction Center

Abstract. The Global Precipitation Climatology Centre Drought Index (GPCC-DI) provides estimations of water supply anomalies with respect to long-term statistics. It is a combination of the Standardized Precipitation Index with adaptations from Deutscher Wetterdienst (SPI-DWD) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). Precipitation data were taken from the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) and temperature data from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC). The GPCC-DI is available with several accumulation periods of 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24 and 48 months for different applications. It is issued monthly starting in January 2013. Typically, it is released on the 10th day of the following month, depending on the availability of the input data. It is calculated on a regular grid with 1° spatial resolution. All accumulation periods are integrated into one netCDF file for each month. This data set is referenced by the doi:10.5676/DWD_GPCC/DI_M_100 and is available free of charge from the GPCC website ftp://ftp.dwd.de/pub/data/gpcc/html/gpcc_di_doi_download.html.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document