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Large scale moisture flux characteristics of the mediterranean basin and their relationships with drier and wetter climate conditions

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Abstract

Large scale moisture flux analysis was carried out for the Mediterranean Basin in order to increase our understanding of the larger scale atmospheric controls on moisture flux convergence that are related to drier and wetter conditions. The seasonal moisture budget (precipitation minus evaporation) was calculated using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction—National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis data for the period 1949–2012. Results of the analysis show that the displacements of prevailing atmospheric action centres located over the subtropical mid-east Atlantic (i.e. Azores high) and the north-east Atlantic (i.e. sub-polar or Iceland low) to the north and to south, respectively, generally determine the wet or dry conditions over the Mediterranean Basin. In winter, the eddy fluxes originating from the mid-Atlantic propagate over Europe providing wet conditions in western and central Europe. The contribution of eddies to the moisture budget weaken in summer for the Mediterranean Basin, because of weaker and less frequent frontal activities in general.

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Acknowledgments

We thank both the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA for making available the NCEP reanalysis data, which are provided via their web site (http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/), and Boulder, Colorado. We thank European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) for making available Era-40 and Era-interim data at their web site (http://apps.ecmwf.int/datasets/). We are also grateful to UCAR/NCAR/CISL/VETS for their NCAR Command Language (Version 6.1.2) [Software] (2013). Sinan Şahin would also like to thank the University of Birmingham, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences for providing research opportunities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Çorlu Engineering, Namik Kemal University, 59860, Çorlu, Tekirdag, Turkey

    Sinan Şahin

  2. Affiliated Faculty at the Department of Statistics, Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey

    Murat Türkeş

  3. Polar Meteorology Group, Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Sheng-Hung Wang

  4. School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK

    David Hannah & Warren Eastwood

  5. Center for Climate Change and Policy Studies, Bogazici University, İstanbul, Turkey

    Murat Türkeş

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  1. Sinan Şahin
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Şahin, S., Türkeş, M., Wang, SH. et al. Large scale moisture flux characteristics of the mediterranean basin and their relationships with drier and wetter climate conditions. Clim Dyn 45, 3381–3401 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2545-x

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