Automated database of mesocyclones from the HIRLAM(INM)‐0.5° analyses in the western Mediterranean

Abstract

An automated procedure has been developed to detect and select mesoscale cyclones and describe their tracks by means of the numerical analysis model, the HIRLAM(INM)-0.5°, operational at the Spanish Institute of Meteorology (INM). This procedure gives us a description of features of these cyclones, such as their frequency of appearance, geographical distribution and horizontal dimensions, and it also enables us to study the movement and the evolution of the cyclone centres. This procedure was developed in order to obtain an automated database of Mediterranean cyclones. To check the performance of this method, the distribution of cyclones was compared with the distribution obtained from a manual catalogue of mesoscale cyclones, and selected cases were studied using both methods. Some results obtained for the western Mediterranean are presented. A large number of cyclones are detected and most of them are located in specific zones, such as the Gulf of Genoa, south of the Pyrenees, south of the Iberian Peninsula and the Alboran Sea. The cyclones follow preferred tracks, which are different depending on the season. Copyright

Simulation of medicanes over the Mediterranean Sea in a regional climate model ensemble: impact of ocean–atmosphere coupling and increased resolution

“…The cyclone detection and tracking method of Picornell et al (2001) is applied for detecting cyclones. This method is designed particularly for mesoscale cyclones, and is therefore especially suited to the detection of medicanes.…”

Climatology of Mediterranean cyclones using the ERA‐40 dataset

“…To avoid unlikely matches, all tracking schemes impose constrains, usually a threshold on the cyclone track length or on the velocity of the cyclone. In the present study, the tracking algorithm firstly described by Picornell et al, (2001) and afterwards applied by Campins et al (2006) has been used. This procedure is based on the one described by Alpert et al (1990).…”

“…This low skill to detect small cyclones is even more evident when these results are compared against other cyclone catalogues, which were achieved by means of higher-resolution datasets. In Picornell et al (2001) Western Mediterranean cyclones were detected over a 0.5°× 0.5°latitude-longitude grid (∼50 km) from HIRLAM-INM analyses and for a 4-year period (June 1995-May 1999. Cyclones were featured as minima in non-smoothed MSLP field.…”

Time variability of cyclonic geostrophic circulation in the Mediterranean

“…Early cyclonic climatologies in this region were subjectively derived from hand made analyses (Radinovic, 1978;Genovés and Jansà, 1989), while later more objective cyclone detection methods have been applied to operational or reanalysis data bases (Alpert et al, 1990;Picornell et al, 2001). Most of the climatologies studied the space-frequency distribution of the cyclones (Trigo et al, 1999;Maheras et al, 2001), while others focused on the relation of cyclone frequencies with the precipitation in some areas (Pinto et al, 1999).…”

“…One of the MEDEX project results has been the creation of a cyclone data base derived from the ERA-40 ECWMF reanalysis, with the same methodology used by Picornell et al (2001) and Campins et al (2005), spanning from September/1957 to August/2002, which is available at the project web page. In these 45 years, 81 762 cyclone centres have been detected at sea level, ranging from meso to synoptic scales.…”