An extreme negative sea level in the Mediterranean Basin: San Giorgio case study compared with Adriatic Sea

The aim of this paper is to discuss the case of an extreme negative sea level phenomenon that occurred along Sicily Island’s coasts (Italy). Sea level time series associated to six stations that are part of the Italian tide gauge network have been analysed. By deriving the tidal residual and by evaluating meteorological parameters’ trends, it was possible to give an explanation to this phenomenon

Monitoring extreme meteo-marine events in the Mediterranean area using the microseism (Medicane Apollo case study)

Microseism is the continuous background seismic signal caused by the interaction between the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the solid Earth. Several studies have dealt with the relationship between microseisms and the tropical cyclones, but none focused on the small-scale tropical cyclones that occur in the Mediterranean Sea, called Medicanes. In this work, we analysed the Medicane Apollo which impacted the eastern part of Sicily during the period 25 October–5 November 2021 causing heavy rainfall, strong wind gusts and violent sea waves. We investigated the microseism accompanying this extreme Mediterranean weather event, and its relationship with the sea state retrieved from hindcast maps and wave buoys. The spectral and amplitude analyses showed the space–time variation of the microseism amplitude. In addition, we tracked the position of Apollo during the time using two different methods: (i) a grid search method; (ii) an array analysis. We obtained a good match between the real position of Apollo and the location constraint by both methods. This work shows that it is possible to extract information on Medicanes from microseisms for both research and monitoring purposes.peer-reviewe

Microseism and medicane Apollo : a new approach to investigate the Mediterranean extreme weather events

Microseism is the most continuous and ubiquitous seismic signal on the Earth and is caused by the interaction between the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the Solid Earth. In literature, there are several studies that deal with the relationship between microseism and cyclonic activity considering in particular hurricanes, tropical cyclones and typhoons. However, the relationships between microseism and the small-scale tropical cyclones that occur in the Mediterranean Sea, called Medicanes, have never been analysed. For this reason, we considered the Medicane Apollo, which developed in the Ionian Sea and impacted the eastern part of Sicily during the period 25th October to 5th November 2021 causing heavy rainfall (> 400 mm/48h), strong wind gusts (104 km/h) and violent sea waves (significant wave height > 3.5 m). Furthermore, the heavy rainfall induced by the presence of Apollo, caused damage to infrastructure and agriculture forcing the Sicilian regional government to declare a state of emergency for 32 municipalities (in the provinces of Catania, Messina, Siracusa and Ragusa) that were mostly affected by the Medicane Apollo.peer-reviewe

Sviluppo del sistema costiero di previsione dello stato del mare

La simulazione della generazione e propagazione del moto ondoso associato al vento è un campo di applicazione che, nell’ultimo decennio, ha avuto ampio sviluppo. Nonostante importanti aspetti delle onde ancora poco noti, il forecast dello stato del mare, grazie allo sviluppo di modelli numerici in grado di simulare accuratamente i complessi processi che regolano l’evoluzione dello spettro energetico delle onde, è un prodotto ormai consolidato per tutti i centri meteorologici. Per capire e prevedere lo stato del mare è stato realizzato un sistema costiero in grado di descrivere gli effetti della propagazione ondosa in sei aree costiere italiane, partendo dalle previsioni sull’intero Mar Mediterraneo

Statistical contributions to the analysis of environmental risks along the coastline

In questo lavoro è messa in evidenza l’importanza del contributo statistico nella definizione della climatologia costiera indispensabile al fine della comprensione dell’evoluzione dei litorali e dei processi idrodinamici che influenzano la fascia costiera. Il modello SWAN è utilizzato per la determinazione del trasporto a costa del clima ondoso; in questo lavoro ne viene presentata un’applicazione nel Mar Adriatico. Per l’implementazione di tale modello è stata costruita una procedura di post-processing che permettesse di ottenere delle condizioni al contorno corrette a partire dai dati di analisi del modello WAM del ECMWF calibrate tramite le osservazioni della rete ondametrica italiana. I risultati dell’applicazione della procedura hanno evidenziato una consistente riduzione della sottostima delle altezze significative dell’ond

Sea Monitoring Networks

none6HF coastal radar technology represents to some extent a fortuitous outcome of the military use of radars for aircraft and ship detection. As of World War II, a strong backscattering of radar signals from the sea surface was often observed in installations close to the sea and considered as noise (Teague et al., 1997). The mechanism underlying this effect was first understood by Crombie (1955), whose observations were followed, after more than a decade, by a number of theoretical investigations which laid the ground to the development of actual measuring systems (for a review of earlier developments of this technique see Barrick, 1978; for the current state of knowledge Paduan and Washburn, 2013).Maurizio Ferla, Gabriele Nardone, Arianna Oras,i Marco Picone, Pierpaolo Falco, Enrico ZambianchiFerla, Maurizio; Nardone, Gabriele; Oras, Arianna; Marco Picone, I; Falco, Pierpaolo; Zambianchi, Enric