scholarly journals Mesoscale numerical simulations of heavy nocturnal rainbands associated with coastal fronts in the Mediterranean Basin

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1185-1194 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Mazon ◽  
D. Pino
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Mesoscale Model ◽  
Cold Pool ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The One ◽  
Maritime Air ◽  
Upstream Flow ◽  
Northeastern Coast ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

Abstract. Three offshore rainbands associated with nocturnal coastal fronts formed near the Israeli coastline, the Gulf of Genoa and on the northeastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, are simulated using version 3.3 of the WRF-ARW mesoscale model in order to study the dynamics of the atmosphere in each case. The simulations show coastal fronts producing relatively high (in comparison with some other similar rainbands) 1 and 10 h accumulated precipitations that formed in the Mediterranean Basin. According to these simulations, the coastal fronts that formed near the Israeli coastline and over the Gulf of Genoa are quasi-stationary, while the one that formed on the northeastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula moves away from the coast. For the three events, we evaluate and intercompare some parameters related to convective triggering, deceleration induced by the cold pool in the upstream flow, and the blockage that the cold coastal front offers to the warmer maritime air mass.

scholarly journals Numerical simulation of relatively heavy nocturnal rain bands associated with nocturnal coastal fronts in the Mediterranean basin

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 7595-7613 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Mazon ◽  
D. Pino
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Simulation ◽  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Mesoscale Model ◽  
Convective Precipitation ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The One ◽  
Coastal Front ◽  
Northeastern Coast ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

Abstract. Three offshore rain bands associated with nocturnal coastal fronts formed near the Israel coastline, the Gulf of Genoa and on the northeastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula are simulated by using version 3.3 of WRF–ARW mesoscale model to study the dynamics of the atmosphere in each case. A relatively large 1 h and 10 h accumulated precipitation are simulated when comparing with some other similar rain bands formed in the Mediterranean basin. According to the simulations, the coastal fronts formed near the Israel coastline and in the Gulf of Genoa are quasi-stationary, while the one formed on the northeastern of the Iberian Peninsula moves offshore. For the three events, the evolution of the triggering parameter H/LFC, where H is the coastal-front depth and LFC is the Level of Free Convection, is compared and used as an indication of the occurrence of convective precipitation.

Juniper Timber: Potentiality of a Vernacular Raw Material

2011 ◽  
Vol 250-253 ◽  
pp. 1143-1146 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Ramón Ruiz Checa ◽  
Valentina Cristini
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Vernacular Architecture ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Traditional Use ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

This research presents some features about juniper timber, above all related with aspects of its structural use (for supports, pillars, beams, roofs...) in some vernacular architecture. Therefore, a special attention is driven to botanical, technical, mechanical features, typical for this type of rare wood. Its traditional use in the Iberian Peninsula and throughout the Mediterranean Basin is still visible in some cases of study, presented in the research. Good constructive qualities make juniper timber a great candidate for further test-researches and experiments, focalized on the family of traditional and”ever green “constructive materials.

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.

Movement Eastward

2019 ◽  
pp. 185-203
Author(s):  
Robert Chazan
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Community ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Soil P ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

This chapter details the Jewish movement eastward. Toward the end of the thirteenth century and on into the fourteenth, the more advanced polities of the northwest began to limit and then expel their Jews. The Jews expelled from England and France did not opt to return to the Mediterranean Basin, from which their ancestors had originated. The migration of these banished Jews eastward across northern Europe reflects the extent to which the one-time Jewish newcomers had come to identify with their adopted ambience. Jews were also expelled from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497, following the banishments from England, France, and multiple locales in northcentral Europe. However, the Spanish expulsion had enormous impact on Jewish thinking, and the reason is simple. This was the banishment of an age-old Jewish community, one that saw itself and was seen by non-Jews as profoundly rooted in European soil.

Impact of the atmospheric-hydrological fully coupled approach in a high-resolution medium-range forecasts: a case study in the Mediterranean

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Furnari ◽  
Linus Magnusson ◽  
Giuseppe Mendicino ◽  
Alfonso Senatore
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Mesoscale Model ◽  
Precipitation Forecast ◽  
Ensemble Prediction ◽  
Medium Range ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Fully Coupled ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

<p>Mediterranean coastal areas are prone to hydrometeorological extremes. Their complex orography often enhances the severity of high impact events and, at the same time, makes forecasts more challenging, particularly in the medium range. Nevertheless, global operational forecasts significantly improved their accuracy in the last decades, while several novelties in mesoscale modelling are emerging, such as the atmospheric-hydrological fully coupled approach, which explicitly describes the complex interactions between the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) and land surface including terrestrial lateral water transport. Overall, several clues open new perspectives to define new standards in medium-range forecast performances in the Mediterranean basin.</p><p>This study investigates the skills of the Advanced Research WRF (ARW) mesoscale model both one-way and two-way coupled with the hydrological extension WRF-Hydro in providing a medium-range (7 days) forecast of a severe event hitting the Calabrian peninsula (southern Italy) in November 2019. Such event was simulated in a classical ensemble approach, using the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) ensemble product (Ensemble Prediction System – EPS), which consists of 50 members providing the initial and boundary conditions to the mesoscale model. WRF model was applied in two one-way nested domains with 10 km and 2 km horizontal resolutions, encompassing most of the Mediterranean basin. WRF-Hydro was applied in the innermost domain, with NOAH-MP as Land Surface Model. Surface and subsurface routing was performed adopting 200 m as horizontal resolution.</p><p>Results highlighted that the fully coupled approach increased soil moisture and latent heat flux from land in an increasing way in the days preceding the event. Such an increase partially affected the lower PBL layers. However, when shoreward moisture transport from surrounding sea rapidly increased becoming the dominant process, only a weak signature of moisture contribution from land to the atmosphere could be detected, resulting in only slightly higher precipitation forecast and slightly increased hydrological response. Overall, the proof-of-concept carried out in this study highlighted a remarkable performance of the medium-range ensemble forecasts, suggesting a profitable use of the fully coupled approach in the selected study area for forecasting purposes in circumstances in which soil moisture dynamics and exchanges with the atmosphere are of particular interest.</p>

scholarly journals Determining the hierarchical order by which the variables of sampling season, dust outbreaks occurrence, and sampling location, can shape the airborne bacterial communities in the Mediterranean basin

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Rosselli ◽  
Maura Fiamma ◽  
Massimo Deligios ◽  
Gabriella Pintus ◽  
Grazia Pellizzaro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Sampling Period ◽  
Sampling Location ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Wind Regimes ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Community Evenness

Abstract. An NGS-based taxonomic analysis was carried out on airborne bacteria sampled at ground level in two periods (May and September) and two opposite localities on the North-South axis of the Sardinia Island. Located in a central position of the Mediterranean basin, Sardinia constitutes a suitable outpost to reveal possible immigration of bacterial taxa during transcontinental particle discharge between Africa and Europe. With the aim of verifying relative effects of dust outbreaks, sampling period and sampling site, on the airborne bacterial community composition, we compared air collected during dust-carrying meteorological events to that coming from wind regimes not associated to long-distance particle lifting. Results indicated that: (a) a higher microbial diversity (118 orders vs 65) and increased community evenness were observed in the campaign carried out in September in comparison to the one in May, irrespective of the place of collection and of the presence or absence of dust outbreaks. (b) During the period of standard wind regimes without transcontinental outbreaks a synchronous, concerted succession of bacterial communities across distant locations of the same island, accompanied as mentioned by a parallel rise in bacterial diversity and community evenness appears to have occurred. (c) changes in wind provenance could transiently change community composition in the locality placed on the coast facing the incoming wind, but not in the one located at the opposite side of the island; for this reason the community changes brought from dust outbreaks of African origin are observed only in the sampling station exposed to south; (d) the same winds, once proceeding over land appear to uplift bacteria belonging to a common core already present over the region, which dilute or replace those that were associated with the air coming from the sea or conveyed by the dust particulate, explaining the two prior points. (e) the hierarchy of the variables tested in determining bacterial assemblages composition results: sampling period >> ongoing meteorological events > sampling location within the island.

scholarly journals Determining the hierarchical order by which the variables of sampling period, dust outbreak occurrence, and sampling location can shape the airborne bacterial communities in the Mediterranean basin

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (14) ◽  
pp. 4351-4367
Author(s):  
Riccardo Rosselli ◽  
Maura Fiamma ◽  
Massimo Deligios ◽  
Gabriella Pintus ◽  
Grazia Pellizzaro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Sampling Period ◽  
Sampling Location ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Wind Regimes ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Community Evenness

Abstract. A next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based taxonomic analysis was carried out on airborne bacteria sampled at ground level in two periods (May and September) and two opposite locations on the north–south axis of the island of Sardinia. Located in a central position of the Mediterranean basin, Sardinia constitutes a suitable outpost for revealing possible immigration of bacterial taxa during transcontinental particle discharge between Africa and Europe. With the aim of verifying relative effects of dust outbreaks, sampling period, and sampling site on the airborne bacterial community composition, we compared air collected during dust-carrying meteorological events to that coming from wind regimes not associated with long-distance particle lifting. Results indicated that (a) higher microbial diversity and richness (118 vs. 65 orders) and increased community evenness were observed in the campaign carried out in September in comparison to the one in May, irrespective of the place of collection and of the presence or absence of dust outbreaks; (b) during the period of standard wind regimes without transcontinental outbreaks, a synchronous concerted turnover of bacterial communities across distant locations of the same island, accompanied as mentioned by a parallel rise in bacterial diversity and community evenness, appears to have occurred; (c) changes in wind provenance could transiently change community composition in the locality placed on the coast facing the incoming wind but not in the one located at the opposite side of the island, and for this reason the community changes brought from dust outbreaks of African origin are observed only in the sampling station exposed to the south; (d) the same winds, once proceeding over land, appear to uplift bacteria belonging to a common core already present over the region, which dilute or replace those that were associated with the air coming from the sea or conveyed by the dust particulates, explaining the two prior points; and (e) the hierarchy of the variables tested in determining bacterial assemblages composition results is as follows: sampling period≫ongoing meteorological events>sampling location within the island.

Diversity and ecological characteristics of the vascular flora in the Western Mediterranean (Eastern Andalusia, Spain). Diversidad y características ecológicas de la flora vascular en el Mediterráneo Occidental (Andalucía Oriental, España)

2014 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 81-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Cueto ◽  
Gabriel Blanca ◽  
Carlos Salazar ◽  
Baltasar Cabezudo
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Balearic Islands ◽  
North African ◽  
Vascular Flora ◽  
Threatened Taxa ◽  
Endemic Genera ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

This work highlights the importance of the vascular flora of eastern Andalusia within the hotspot of the Mediterranean Basin, analysing 3726 taxa, which represent 42.0% of the Iberian Peninsula and 29.9% of European floras. Notably, 10.3% of the flora is endemic (350 taxa), constituting 34.3% of the endemism of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands, and 2.6% of those of the Mediterranean Basin, which include 6 of the 17 endemic genera of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands, 3 of these being exclusive of the territory analysed. Chamaephytes and hemicryptophytes make up 45.5% of the flora, with decreasing values for the therophytes as altitudes rise (41.1-8.1%) and increasing values for hemicryptophytes (22.4%-63.2%). Mediterranean taxa comprise 39.2%, followed by Ibero-North African taxa (15.3%), Iberian (13.9%), European (11.3%) and local endemism (9.4%). Of these taxa, 12.5% are threatened, according to the criteria of the UICN. Tanacetum funkii, exclusive of this area, is considered extinct. Only 6 families account for 43.5% of the threatened taxa. The Mesomediterranean thermotype (600-1400 m a.s.l.) harbours 82.8% of the species, with a maximum of between 700-800 m a.s.l. and with two zones of minimums: from -100 to 0 m a.s.l. and from 3300 to 3400 m a.s.l.

The end of the Upper Palaeolithic in the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula

2012 ◽  
Vol 272-273 ◽  
pp. 17-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentín Villaverde Bonilla ◽  
Dídac Román ◽  
Manuel Pérez Ripoll ◽  
M. Mercè Bergadà ◽  
Cristina Real
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

scholarly journals Late Miocene remains from Venta del Moro (Iberian Peninsula) provide further insights on the dispersal of crocodiles across the late Miocene Tethys

2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-192
Author(s):  
Massimo Delfino ◽  
Àngel H. Luján ◽  
Juan Abella ◽  
David M. Alba ◽  
Madelaine Böhme ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Late Miocene ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
The Past ◽  
Morphological Basis ◽  
Mediterranean Europe ◽  
Small Collection ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

AbstractThe dispersal of Crocodylus from Africa to Europe during the Miocene is not well understood. A small collection of cranial fragments and postcranial elements from the latest Miocene (6.2 Ma) site of Venta del Moro (Valencia, Spain) have previously been referred to Crocodylus cf. C. checchiai Maccagno, 1947 without accompanying descriptions. Here we describe and figure for the first time the crocodylian remains from Venta del Moro, which represent at least two individuals. Our comparisons indicate that this material clearly does not belong to Diplocynodon or Tomistoma—the only two other crocodylians described so far for the European late Miocene. The material is only tentatively referred to cf. Crocodylus sp. because the apomorphies of this genus are not preserved and a referral to C. checchiai cannot be supported on a morphological basis. However, it is likely that this late Miocene species, originally described from Libya (As Sahabi) and later identified also in Kenya, could have dispersed across the Mediterranean Basin multiple times and colonized the southern areas of Mediterranean Europe, as evidenced by several Crocodylus or Crocodylus-like remains described during the past years.

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