Extreme dry spells over the Mediterranean Basin during the wet season: Assessment of HyMeX/Med-CORDEX regional climate simulations (1979-2009)

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (7) ◽  
pp. 3090-3105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Raymond ◽  
Philippe Drobinski ◽  
Albin Ullmann ◽  
Pierre Camberlin
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Wet Season ◽  
Dry Spells ◽  
Climate Simulations ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

scholarly journals Dust emission size distribution impact on aerosol budget and radiative forcing over the Mediterranean region: a regional climate model approach

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 10545-10567 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Nabat ◽  
F. Solmon ◽  
M. Mallet ◽  
J. F. Kok ◽  
S. Somot
Keyword(s):  
Size Distribution ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Dust Emission ◽  
Dust Deposition ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Dust Distribution ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

Abstract. The present study investigates the dust emission and load over the Mediterranean basin using the coupled chemistry–aerosol–regional climate model RegCM-4. The first step of this work focuses on dust particle emission size distribution modeling. We compare a parameterization in which the emission is based on the individual kinetic energy of the aggregates striking the surface to a recent parameterization based on an analogy with the fragmentation of brittle materials. The main difference between the two dust schemes concerns the mass proportion of fine aerosol that is reduced in the case of the new dust parameterization, with consequences for optical properties. At the episodic scale, comparisons between RegCM-4 simulations, satellite and ground-based data show a clear improvement using the new dust distribution in terms of aerosol optical depth (AOD) values and geographic gradients. These results are confirmed at the seasonal scale for the investigated year 2008. This change of dust distribution has sensitive impacts on the simulated regional dust budget, notably dry dust deposition and the regional direct aerosol radiative forcing over the Mediterranean basin. In particular, we find that the new size distribution produces a higher dust deposition flux, and smaller top of atmosphere (TOA) dust radiative cooling. A multi-annual simulation is finally carried out using the new dust distribution over the period 2000–2009. The average SW radiative forcing over the Mediterranean Sea reaches −13.6 W m−2 at the surface, and −5.5 W m−2 at TOA. The LW radiative forcing is positive over the basin: 1.7 W m−2 on average over the Mediterranean Sea at the surface, and 0.6 W m−2 at TOA.

Atmospheric conditions and weather regimes associated with extreme winter dry spells over the Mediterranean basin

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 4437-4453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Raymond ◽  
Albin Ullmann ◽  
Pierre Camberlin ◽  
Boutheina Oueslati ◽  
Philippe Drobinski
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Weather Regimes ◽  
Dry Spells ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

scholarly journals Dust emission size distribution impact on aerosol budget and radiative forcing over the Mediterranean region: a regional climate model approach

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 17835-17886 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Nabat ◽  
F. Solmon ◽  
M. Mallet ◽  
J. F. Kok ◽  
S. Somot
Keyword(s):  
Size Distribution ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Dust Emission ◽  
Dust Deposition ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Dust Distribution ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

Abstract. The present study investigates the dust emission and load over the Mediterranean basin using the coupled-chemistry-aerosol regional climate model RegCM-4. The first step of this work focuses on dust particle emission size distribution modeling. We compare a parameterization in which the emission is based on the individual kinetic energy of the aggregates striking the surface to a recent parameterization based on an analogy with the fragmentation of brittle materials. The main difference between the two dust schemes concerns the mass proportion of fine aerosol which is reduced in the case of the new dust parameterization, with consequences for optical properties. At the episodic scale, comparisons between RegCM-4 simulations, satellite and ground-based data show a clear improvement using the new dust distribution in terms of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) values and geographic gradients. These results are confirmed at the seasonal scale for the investigated year 2008. A multi-annual simulation is finally carried out using the new dust distribution over the period 2000–2009. This change of dust distribution has sensitive impacts on the simulated regional dust budget, notably dry dust deposition and the regional direct aerosol radiative forcing over the Mediterranean basin. This could clearly modify the possible effects of dust aerosols on the biogeochemical activity and climate of the Mediterranean basin. In particular, we find that the new size distribution produces a higher dust deposition flux, and smaller top of atmosphere (TOA) dust radiative cooling.

scholarly journals Extreme dry spell detection and climatology over the Mediterranean Basin during the wet season

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (13) ◽  
pp. 7196-7204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Raymond ◽  
Albin Ullmann ◽  
Pierre Camberlin ◽  
Philippe Drobinski ◽  
Carmela Chateau Smith
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Wet Season ◽  
Dry Spell ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

scholarly journals Precipitation changes in the Mediterranean basin during the Holocene from terrestrial and marine pollen records: a model–data comparison

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odile Peyron ◽  
Nathalie Combourieu-Nebout ◽  
David Brayshaw ◽  
Simon Goring ◽  
Valérie Andrieu-Ponel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Summer Precipitation ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Precipitation Estimates ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

Abstract. Climate evolution of the Mediterranean region during the Holocene exhibits strong spatial and temporal variability, which is notoriously difficult for models to reproduce. We propose here a new proxy-based climate synthesis synthesis and its comparison – at a regional (∼ 100 km) level – with a regional climate model to examine (i) opposing northern and southern precipitation regimes and (ii) an east-to-west precipitation dipole during the Holocene across the Mediterranean basin. Using precipitation estimates inferred from marine and terrestrial pollen archives, we focus on the early to mid-Holocene (8000 to 6000 cal yr BP) and the late Holocene (4000 to 2000 cal yr BP), to test these hypotheses on a Mediterranean-wide scale. Special attention was given to the reconstruction of season-specific climate information, notably summer and winter precipitation. The reconstructed climatic trends corroborate the north–south partition of precipitation regimes during the Holocene. During the early Holocene, relatively wet conditions occurred in the south–central and eastern Mediterranean regions, while drier conditions prevailed from 45° N northwards. These patterns then reverse during the late Holocene. With regard to the existence of a west–east precipitation dipole during the Holocene, our results show that the strength of this dipole is strongly linked to the reconstructed seasonal parameter; early-Holocene summers show a clear east–west division, with summer precipitation having been highest in Greece and the eastern Mediterranean and lowest over Italy and the western Mediterranean. Summer precipitation in the east remained above modern values, even during the late-Holocene interval. In contrast, winter precipitation signals are less spatially coherent during the early Holocene but low precipitation is evidenced during the late Holocene. A general drying trend occurred from the early to late Holocene, particularly in the central and eastern Mediterranean. For the same time intervals, pollen-inferred precipitation estimates were compared with model outputs, based on a regional-scale downscaling (HadRM3) of a set of global climate-model simulations (HadAM3). The high-resolution detail achieved through the downscaling is intended to enable a better comparison between site-based paleo-reconstructions and gridded model data in the complex terrain of the Mediterranean; the model outputs and pollen-inferred precipitation estimates show some overall correspondence, though modeled changes are small and at the absolute margins of statistical significance. There are suggestions that the eastern Mediterranean experienced wetter summer conditions than present during the early and late Holocene; the drying trend in winter from the early to the late Holocene also appears to be simulated. The use of this high-resolution regional climate model highlights how the inherently patchy nature of climate signals and paleo-records in the Mediterranean basin may lead to local signals that are much stronger than the large-scale pattern would suggest. Nevertheless, the east-to-west division in summer precipitation seems more marked in the pollen reconstruction than in the model outputs. The footprint of the anomalies (like today, or dry winters and wet summers) has some similarities to modern analogue atmospheric circulation patterns associated with a strong westerly circulation in winter (positive Arctic Oscillation–North Atlantic Oscillation (AO–NAO)) and a weak westerly circulation in summer associated with anticyclonic blocking; however, there also remain important differences between the paleo-simulations and these analogues. The regional climate model, consistent with other global models, does not suggest an extension of the African summer monsoon into the Mediterranean. Therefore, the extent to which summer monsoonal precipitation may have existed in the southern and eastern Mediterranean during the mid-Holocene remains an outstanding question.

Piracy and Law in the Ottoman Mediterranean

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua M. White
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Comprehensive Examination ◽  
Legal Space ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
First Time ◽  
Eastern Half ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

This book offers a comprehensive examination of the shape and impact of piracy in the eastern half of the Mediterranean and the Ottoman Empire’s administrative, legal, and diplomatic response. In the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, piracy had a tremendous effect on the formation of international law, the conduct of diplomacy, the articulation of Ottoman imperial and Islamic law, and their application in Ottoman courts. Piracy and Law draws on research in archives and libraries in Istanbul, Venice, Crete, London, and Paris to bring the Ottoman state and Ottoman victims into the story for the first time. It explains why piracy exploded after the 1570s and why the Ottoman state was largely unable to marshal an effective military solution even as it responded dynamically in the spheres of law and diplomacy. By focusing on the Ottoman victims, jurists, and officials who had to contend most with the consequences of piracy, Piracy and Law reveals a broader range of piratical practitioners than the Muslim and Catholic corsairs who have typically been the focus of study and considers their consequences for the Ottoman state and those who traveled through Ottoman waters. This book argues that what made the eastern half of the Mediterranean basin the Ottoman Mediterranean, more than sovereignty or naval supremacy—which was ephemeral—was that it was a legal space. The challenge of piracy helped to define its contours.

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