Orographic influences on the Adriatic sirocco wind

Differences between meteorological fields over the Adriatic Sea as predicted by the mesoscale meteorological model ALADIN/HR and global ECMWF model, for sirocco episodes between November 2002 and September 2003, are analysed. Results indicate that the orography, namely Gargano Mountains and Apennines, may have a significant effect on the sirocco airflow. A brief discussion is given on the impact of the sirocco wind curl on the Western Adriatic Current (WAC)

Diurnal internal tides detected in the Adriatic

Strong diurnal oscillations, documented by temperature data that were collected along a submarine cliff on the Lastovo Island (southern Adriatic), are studied and compared with sea level and wind measurements at Dubrovnik and Komiža (island of Vis). Three thermistors were deployed at the depths of 15, 22 and 36 m between March 2001 and March 2002. Pronounced diurnal temperature oscillations were detected at 15 and 22 m during the stratified season. The correlation between the sea surface and thermocline displacements was highest in June 2001, when diurnal wind changes were not significant, while diurnal sea level oscillations achieved annual maxima. Thermocline oscillations were in phase with sea level changes. The range of diurnal sea surface variability was close to 19 cm, while the range of corresponding thermocline variability was about 5.4 m. The findings summarize the outcome of the first dedicated study of internal tides in the Adriatic

Coastal sea responses to atmospheric forcings at two different resolutions

We investigated coastal sea responses to three, multi-day strong wind episodes that occurred in the middle Adriatic during the Target Operational Period (TOP) of the European COastal sea OPerational observing and forecasting system (ECOOP) project. A high-resolution oceanographic model (1 km horizontal, 16 vertical layers) based on the modified Princeton Ocean Model (POM) was applied to a highly complex domain located in the coastal area of the eastern Adriatic Sea. The oceanographic model was nested into the Adriatic REGional model (AREG-2) covering the entire Adriatic Sea. Meteorological forcing was prepared by two atmospheric models. The coarser model was the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecast model (ECMWF, with horizontal and temporal resolutions of 0.25 and 6 h, respectively), and the finer one was the Aire Limit´ee Adaptation dynamique D´eveloppement InterNational model (ALADIN, with horizontal and temporal resolutions of 8 km and 3 h, respectively, and winds dynamically adapted to a horizontal resolution of 2 km). The results show that smallscale atmospheric features, which arise due to the orographically complex mainland and the number of islands and were not reproduced by the coarser atmospheric model, substantially affected surface currents, mass transports, sea surface temperature (SST) and surface salinity in the coastal area during strong Bora. For strong Sirocco, the atmospheric model’s resolution was important for currents on the lee sides of islands.Published521–532JCR Journalope