| Volumes Contents of Volume 12 |
www.adv-geosci.net/12/27/2007/
doi:10.5194/adgeo-12-27-2007
© Author(s) 2007. This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons License.
Atmospheric patterns for heavy rain events in the Balearic Islands
Centre Meteorològic de les Illes Balears, Instituto Nacional de Meteorología, Spain
Abstract. The Balearic Islands, as well as other Mediterranean regions, are occasionally affected by heavy rain events, which can produce numerous damages. This study contributes to improve the understanding of the dynamical mechanisms that produce heavy rain events by means of a classification of their related atmospheric patterns.
Heavy rainfall dataset for the Balearic Islands and some gridded atmospheric parameters, derived from the HIRLAM-INM-0.5° analyses, were the data used in this study. Heavy rain events were recorded at a set of pluviometric stations along the Balearics for a period of 9 years, from June 1995 to May 2004. The 1000 hPa and 500 hPa geopotential heights (hereafter φ1000 and φ500), as well as the 850 hPa temperature (T850) were the fields utilized in the classification.
By means of a principal components analysis (PCA) the number of variables was reduced. The cluster analysis (CA) was then applied on those new variables and eight atmospheric patterns were finally obtained. Most of the patterns showed a strong relationship between heavy rain events and cyclones.
Full Article in PDF (PDF, 967 KB)
Citation: Lana, A., Campins, J., Genovés, A., and Jansà, A.: Atmospheric patterns for heavy rain events in the Balearic Islands, Adv. Geosci., 12, 27-32, doi:10.5194/adgeo-12-27-2007, 2007. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
