Genesis and maintenance of "Mediterranean hurricanes"

K. Emanuel (1)

1 Program in Atmospheres [Cambridge]

Cyclonic storms that closely resemble tropical cyclones in satellite images occasionally form over the Mediterranean Sea. Synoptic and mesoscale analyses of such storms show small, warm-core structure and surface winds sometimes exceeding 25ms^-1 over small areas. These analyses, together with numerical simulations, reveal that in their mature stages, such storms intensify and are maintained by a feedback between surface enthalpy fluxes and wind, and as such are isomorphic with tropical cyclones. In this paper, I demonstrate that a cold, upper low over the Mediterranean can produce strong cyclogenesis in an axisymmetric model, thereby showing that baroclinic instability is not necessary during the mature stages of Mediterranean hurricanes.

Domaines: Sciences de la Terre

K. Emanuel. Genesis and maintenance of "Mediterranean hurricanes". Advances in Geosciences, 2005, 2, pp.217-220. ⟨hal-00296883⟩