Remote sensing of deep convection within a tropical‐like cyclone over the Mediterranean Sea

Dafis, Stavros; Rysman, Jean‐François; Claud, Chantal; Flaounas, Emmanouil

doi:10.1002/asl.823

Cited by 33 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…As a consequence, one can estimate the deepening Δp of the minimum central pressure with time for a tropical cyclone, based on the change in e from the external region, where the parcel starts, to the cyclone centre, that is, from the undisturbed region to the area affected by intense air-sea interaction processes: Δp = −2.5Δ e . Thus, a change in e of around 10 K would cause a surface pressure drop of about 25 hPa; in our cases, one can observe a change of about 10-15 hPa in the two cyclones, which can be understood considering that the extent of the troposphere at midlatitudes (typically up to 300 hPa) is shallower compared to that in a typical tropical environment (up to 100 hPa), that convection in the mature stage of medicanes is often shallow (Miglietta et al, 2013;Dafis et al, 2018) and that the entrainment of dry air can be an important process in the midlatitudes. Thus, for the Mediterranean, this empirical relationship does not work, and its formula should be corrected based on a set of several case-studies.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Development mechanisms for Mediterranean tropical‐like cyclones (medicanes)

Miglietta

Rotunno

2019

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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Midlatitude cyclones with characteristics similar to tropical cyclones (also known as Tropical‐Like Cyclones, TLCs, or medicanes) are sometimes observed in the Mediterranean region. The Wind Induced Surface Heat Exchange (WISHE) mechanism has been considered responsible for their development, in analogy with tropical‐cyclone theory. However, some recent papers have proposed a different explanation, suggesting that the deep warm core in the TLC is mainly an effect of the seclusion of warm air in the cyclone core. To investigate the latter hypothesis, two case‐studies of Mediterranean TLCs are analysed here by means of high‐resolution numerical experiments. The evolution of the near‐surface equivalent potential temperature is followed along back‐trajectories around the cyclone centre, showing for both cases a strong heating when the parcel moves from the outer part of the cyclone to its inner, warmer core. Sensitivity experiments clarify the mechanism of cyclone intensification and the way the warm‐core structure is generated, showing that sea‐surface fluxes and/or condensation latent heating are fundamental to explain the intensification of the cyclones. However, the importance of air–sea interaction processes is case dependent. For the first cyclone, the intense sea‐surface fluxes, associated with tramontane and cierzo winds over the western Mediterranean Sea, transfer a large amount of energy from the ocean to the atmosphere in the area where the cyclone developed, so that the vortex is able to sustain itself in a barotropic environment and reach a tropical‐like structure at a later stage in its lifetime. For the second cyclone, the cyclone never develops a fully tropical‐like structure, evolving in the baroclinic environment associated with the potential vorticity streamer in which the cyclone formed. Based on the distinction emerging in this and other articles, a classification of medicanes in three different categories is proposed.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Development mechanisms for Mediterranean tropical‐like cyclones (medicanes)

Miglietta

Rotunno

2019

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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“…Please clarify this point here and later in the discussion (L561-564 should be changed, as the Medicane apparently belongs to the second category of Medicanes). is consistent with the observations in Miglietta et al (2013) andDafis et al (2018).…”

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confidence: 94%

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Anonymous

2019

Preprint

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The Medicane of November 2014 is analyzed here using a coupled modelling approach, focusing on the role of surface processes for the development of the cyclone. This part of the analysis is very detailed and provides a clear investigation of the role of different surface parameters involved in the evolution of the cyclone. Also, results show that the coupling with the ocean model appears not necessary for a proper simulation of this Medicane. Results are interesting and worth of publication, in particular Section 3.2 and 4 are full of interesting insights in the mechanism of development of the cyclone in terms of air-C1

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“…Miglietta et al (2013) also came to similar results by investigating 14 MTLCs with a combined satellite-monitoring and modelling approach. The evolution of DC and lightning activity of the MTLC "ROLF" in 2011 was studied by Dafis et al (2018), who showed that the convective evolution of the cyclone shares more similar characteristics with TCs than intense extratropical Mediterranean cyclones.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights into the convective evolution of Mediterranean tropical‐like cyclones

Dafis

Claud

Kotroni

et al. 2020

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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This study aims at understanding how deep convection is organized and contributes to the intensification of nine Mediterranean tropical-like cyclones which developed between 2005 and 2018. Through a multi-satellite approach, a combination of infrared and microwave diagnostics provides insights into the temporal and spatial evolution of deep convection. ERA5 reanalysis complements the remote-sensing observations and is used to compute the vertical wind shear and vortex tilt to investigate their interactions with deep convection. Results show that vertical wind shear and topography have an important impact on the organization of deep convection and the symmetry of the cyclones. Only a fraction of these cyclones experienced intense convective activity close to their centres and we show that persistent deep convection in the upshear quadrants led to intensification periods. Convective activity solely in the downshear quadrants was not linked to intensification periods, while short-lived hurricane-like structures develop only during symmetric convective activity, leading to cyclone intensification in some of the cases. Finally, a classification of the Mediterranean tropical-like cyclones is proposed based on the evolution of deep convection and their intensification periods.

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Remote sensing of deep convection within a tropical‐like cyclone over the Mediterranean Sea

Cited by 33 publications

References 23 publications

Development mechanisms for Mediterranean tropical‐like cyclones (medicanes)

Development mechanisms for Mediterranean tropical‐like cyclones (medicanes)

review

Insights into the convective evolution of Mediterranean tropical‐like cyclones

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