 the Mediterranean coupled system
- Mediterranean ocean variability
- Land-surface atmosphere interaction
- River modeling
- Impact modeling
- African climate
Modelling the Mediterranean coupled system
We developed an atmosphere-ocean regional climate model (AORCM) for the Mediterranean basin, called the PROTHEUS system, composed by the regional climate model RegCM3 as the atmospheric component and by a regional configuration of the MITgcm model as the oceanic component. The model is applied to an area encompassing the Mediterranean Sea and compared to a stand-alone version of its atmospheric component. An assessment of the model performances is done by using available observational datasets.
Despite a persistent bias, the PROTHEUS system is able to capture the inter-annual variability of seasonal SST and also the fine scale spatio-temporal evolution of observed SST anomalies, with spatial correlation as high as 0.7 during summer. The close inspection of a 10-day strong wind event during the summer of 2000 proves the capability of the PROTHEUS system to correctly describe the daily evolution of SST under strong air-sea interaction conditions. As a consequence of the model's skill in reproducing observed SST and wind fields, we expect a reliable estimation of air-sea fluxes. The model skill in reproducing climatological land surface fields is in line with that of state of the art regional climate models.
This activity is carried out in collaboration with ICTP
Within the CIRCE-EU project, we performed regional climate scenarios for the Mediterranean region.
Figure. SST anomalies (degrees C) for 09/07/2000 in CPL scale observations.
Figure. SST anomalies (degrees C) for 09/07/2000 in fine scale observations.
Mediterranean ocean variability
The oceanic component of the PROTHEUS system is firstly validated comparing the sea level variability reproduced by the model with altimeter data and then used to study the interannual variability of the Mediterranean Sea and to extrapolate future behavior using the A1B scenario o