An Atmospheric Scientist—The Contributions of Dr. Yitzhak Mahrer

Dr. Yitzhak Mahrer, an Israeli atmospheric scientist, was one of the earliest contributors to the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), a leading model with abilities on a wide range of atmospheric scales. He was involved in many complex-terrain and coastal atmospheric dynamic studies, and was among the pioneers of air-pollution modeling, especially over the Eastern Mediterranean. Dr. Mahrer deceased on September 2017, and RAMS community has lost one of its founders, with his shy smile, funny remarks, and bright mind. While he also led multiple fields observational campaigns and graduated many students as a Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, we hereby present only a brief overview of his scientific contribution to the atmospheric modeling community

HEAVY PRECIPITATION SYSTEMS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AREA: THE ROLE OF THE GPM

Heavy precipitation systems typical of the Mediterranean area that often devastate the coastal regions, are described and analyzed here by exploiting active and passive microwave measurements and state of the art precipitation products available in the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission era. The GPM is boosting its key role in integrating the established observational ground-based and satellite-borne tools not only for precipitation monitoring, but also for understanding and characterizing severe weather in the Mediterranean. In this Chapter, we present three events that have recently challenged observational and forecasting capabilities, and caused damages at the ground. Making use of ground based and satellite-borne instruments, we address the problem of estimating precipitation of a small-scale and short-living intense thunderstorm, the capability to render the 3D structure of a mesoscale organized convective system, and the key role of satellite view in the classification and monitoring of a tropical-like cyclonic system. To this end, we exploited satellite measurements probably beyond the role they have been designed for, showing few strategies to blend satellite data and products with conventional meteorological data, with the aim to increase the knowledge of severe systems in the Mediterranean area and to support operational forecasting activities in a climate change perspective