Search results for "atitudes"
showing 10 items of 48 documents
Multi-model simulations of a convective situation in low-mountain terrain in central Europe
2008
The goal of the present study is to investigate the variability of simulated convective precipitation by three convection-resolving models using different set-ups and initial and boundary conditions. The COSMO, MM5 and WRF models have been used to simulate the atmospheric situation on 12 July 2006, when local convection occurred in central Europe under weak synoptic forcing. The focus of this investigation is on the convective precipitation in the northern Black Forest in South-West Germany. The precipitation fields from the nine model simulations differ considerably. Six simulations capture the convective character of the event. However, they differ considerably in the location and timing …
Property loss potentials for European midlatitude storms in a changing climate
2007
[1] Winter storms of the midlatitudes are an important factor for property losses caused by natural hazards over Europe. The storm series in early 1990 and late 1999 led to enormous economic damages and insured claims. Although significant trends in North Atlantic/European storm activity have not been identified for the last few decades, recent studies provide evidence that under anthropogenic climate change the number of extreme storms could increase, whereas the total number of cyclones may be slightly reduced. In this study, loss potentials derived from an ensemble of climate models using a simple storm damage model under climate change conditions are shown. For the United Kingdom and Ge…
In situ detection of stratosphere-troposphere exchange of cirrus particles in the midlatitudes
2015
Airborne trace gas, microphysical, and radiation measurements were performed during the AIRcraft TOwed Sensor Shuttle - Inhomogeneous Cirrus Experiment over northern Germany in 2013. Based on high-precision nitrous oxide (N2O) and carbon monoxide (CO) in situ data, stratospheric air could be identified, which contained cirrus cloud particles. Consistent with the stratospheric N2O data, backward trajectories indicate that the sampled air masses crossed the dynamical tropopause in the last 3 h before the measurement. These air masses contained cirrus particles, which were formed during slow ascent in the troposphere and subsequently mixed with stratospheric air. From the CO-N2O correlation th…
Revising midlatitude summer temperatures back to A.D. 600 based on a wood density network
2015
Annually resolved and millennium-long reconstructions of large-scale temperature variability are primarily composed of tree ring width (TRW) chronologies. Changes in ring width, however, have recently been shown to bias the ratio between low- and high-frequency signals. To overcome limitations in capturing the full spectrum of past temperature variability, we present a network of 15 maximum latewood density (MXD) chronologies distributed across the Northern Hemisphere extratropics. Independent subsets of continental-scale records consistently reveal high MXD before 1580 and after 1910, with below average values between these periods. Reconstructed extratropical summer temperatures reflect n…
A composite study on the structure and formation of ozone miniholes and minihighs over central Europe
2005
[1] Two different mechanisms have been proposed to be important for the formation of extreme total ozone events in mid-latitudes, so-called miniholes: (A) far-range meridional transport of air masses from regions with different climatological ozone mixing ratios, and (B) (local) adiabatic vertical displacement of isentropes. Here, the relative importance of these two mechanisms is studied using two different ozone profile reconstruction techniques for all miniholes and minihighs (events with anomalously high ozone) during the time period 1980–1989 over Switzerland. Composites for the two types of events of their vertical potential vorticity (PV) reveal a vertical dipole structure of PV anom…
Waveguidability of idealized midlatitude jets and the limitations of ray tracing theory
2020
Abstract. Ray paths of stationary Rossby waves emanating from a local midlatitude source are usually refracted equatorward. However, this general tendency for equatorward propagation is mitigated by the presence of a midlatitude jet that acts as a zonal waveguide. This opens up the possibility of circum-global teleconnections and quasi-resonance, which suggests that the ability to guide a wave in the zonal direction is an important jet property. This paper investigates waveguidability of idealized midlatitude jets in a barotropic model on the sphere. A forced-dissipative model configuration with a local source for Rossby waves is used in order to quantify waveguidability by diagnosing the l…
Diagnosing the Horizontal Propagation of Rossby Wave Packets along the Midlatitude Waveguide
2017
AbstractIt has been suggested that upper-tropospheric Rossby wave packets propagating along the midlatitude waveguide may play a role for triggering severe weather. This motivates the search for robust methods to detect and track Rossby wave packets and to diagnose their properties. In the framework of several observed cases, this paper compares different methods that have been proposed for these tasks, with an emphasis on horizontal propagation and on a particular formulation of a wave activity flux previously suggested by Takaya and Nakamura. The utility of this flux is compromised by the semigeostrophic nature of upper-tropospheric Rossby waves, but this problem can partly be overcome by…
The Static Stability of the Tropopause Region in Adiabatic Baroclinic Life Cycle Experiments
2011
Abstract The tropopause inversion layer (TIL) is a region of enhanced static stability just above the WMO-defined thermal tropopause. It is a ubiquitous feature in midlatitudes and is well characterized by observations. However, it is still lacking a satisfactory theoretical explanation. This study utilizes adiabatic baroclinic life cycle experiments to investigate dynamical mechanisms that lead to TIL formation. As the baroclinic wave grows, a strong TIL forms above anticyclonic anomalies, while no TIL is found above cyclonic anomalies; this is consistent with previous results. However, during the early growth phase there is no TIL in the global or zonal average: positive and negative anom…
How do tropical temperate troughs form and develop over southern Africa?
2014
16 pages ; Corrigendum Figure (Macron C, B Pohl, Y Richard & M Bessafi (2014) CORRIGENDUM. Journal of Climate, 27, 5198-5199. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00319.1); International audience; This paper aims at separating the respective influences of tropical and midlatitude variability on the development and life cycle of tropical temperate troughs (TTTs) over southern Africa in austral summer (November-February). Cluster analysis is applied to 1971-2000 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) daily outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) anomalies to identify TTTs and monitor tropical convection. The same analysis applied to the zonal wind stretching deformation at 200 hPa (ZDEF) characterizes midlatitude trans…
Primo rinvenimento di Juniperus sabina L. sul massiccio del Pollino, Italia meridionale
1992
Viene segnalata per la prima volta la presenza di Juniperus sabina L. sul massiccio del Pollino, dove la specie è stata rinvenuta in habitat rupicolo in due stazioni ricadenti rispettivamente in territorio calabrese e lucano. Le stazioni vengono caratterizzate dal punto di vista floristico ed ecologico.