Towards an understanding and operational early warning of the Adriatic meteotsunamis: Project MESSI

Abstract

Abstract:The paper presents the architecture and major achievements of the project MESSI, aiming to build a reliable prototype of a meteotsunami warning system based on realtime measurements, operational atmosphere and ocean modelling and real-time decision-making process, using knowledge acquired from analysis of historical destructive events. A number of tide gauge and microbarograph stations were installed in the middle Adriatic area, whilst synoptic patterns and numerical weather prediction mesoscale models have been examined to establish connection between atmospheric forcing and meteotsunami waves. Project outcomes will be highly beneficial for endangered coastal communities, in a sense of rising timely alarms, for planning of construction works along the coastline (roads, marinas, piers, etc.), for the navigation safety, educating people and raising awareness in endangered areas.

The Mediterranean and Black Sea meteotsunamis: an overview

“…However, an advanced prototype of a meteotsunami early warning system (Fig. 18) was developed and successfully evaluated in the Adriatic Sea (Šepić et al 2017;Denamiel et al 2019b), but it is unfortunately not operational due to a lack of computational resources. This early warning system receives two different type of data: high-resolution atmospheric and ocean model results provided by the AdriSC system and 1-min measurements from the MESSI observational network.…”