| Volumes Contents of Volume 12 |
www.adv-geosci.net/12/5/2007/
© Author(s) 2007. This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons License.
Predictability of intense rain storms in the Central Mediterraneanbasin: sensitivity to upper-level forcing
1CRATI Scrl, c/o Università della Calabria, Rende (CS), Italy
2CNR-ISAC, via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, Rome , Italy
3Facoltà di Ingegneria-Università di "Tor Vergata", via del Politecnico 1, Rome , Italy
4Pratt School, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
Abstract. This study investigates the sensitivity of a moderate-intense storm that occurred over Calabria, southern Italy, to upper-tropospheric forcing from a Potential Vorticity (PV) perspective. A prominent mid-troposheric trough can be identified for this event, which occurred between 22–24 May 2002, and serves as the precursor agent for the moderate-intense precipitation recorded.
The working hypothesis is that the uncertainty in the representation of the upper-level disturbance has a major impact on the precipitation forecast and we test the hypothesis in a two-step approach. First, we examine the degree of uncertainty by comparing five different scenarios in a Limited area model Ensemble Prediction System (LEPS) framework which utilizes the height of the dynamical tropopause as the discriminating variable. Pseudo water vapour images of different scenarios are compared to the corresponding METEOSAT 7 water vapour image at a specific time, antecedent to the rain occurrence over Calabria, in order to evaluate the reliability of the different precipitation scenarios simulated by the LEPS.
Second, we examine the impact of upper tropospheric PV variations on precipitation by comparing model simulations with slightly different initial PV fields. Initial velocity and mass fields in each case are balanced with the chosen PV perturbation using a PV inversion technique. The results of this study support the working hypothesis.
Full Article in PDF (PDF, 2271 KB)
Citation: Federico, S., Avolio, E., Bellecci, C., Lavagnini, A., and Walko, R. L.: Predictability of intense rain storms in the Central Mediterraneanbasin: sensitivity to upper-level forcing, Adv. Geosci., 12, 5-18, 2007. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager
