Meridional Motion and Reynolds Stress from Debrecen Photoheliographic Data

The Debrecen Photoheliographic Data catalogue is a continuation of the Greenwich Photoheliographic Results providing daily positions of sunspots and sunspot groups. We analyse the data for sunspot groups focussing on meridional motions and transfer of angular momentum towards the solar equator. Velocities are calculated with a daily shift method including an automatic iterative process of removing the outliers. Apart from the standard differential rotation profile, we find meridional motion directed towards the zone of solar activity. The difference in measured meridional flow in comparison to Doppler measurements and some other tracer measurements is interpreted as a consequence of different flow patterns inside and outside of active regions. We also find a statistically significant dependence of meridional motion on rotation velocity residuals confirming the transfer of angular momentum towards the equator. Analysis of horizontal Reynolds stress reveals that the transfer of angular momentum is stronger with increasing latitude up to about \(40^{\circ}\), where there is a possible maximum in absolute value.     

The role of water mass dynamics in controlling bacterial abundance and production in the middle Adriatic Sea

Month-to-month fluctuations in the abundance of bacteria and heterotrophic nanoflagellates (HNF) and bacterial production, as well as various chemical (nutrients, oxygen) and physical (salinity, temperature) parameters were analysed at a station located in the open middle Adriatic Sea during one decade (1997-2006). Being influenced by both coastal waters and open Adriatic circulation in the surface layer, and by the deep Adriatic water masses in the deep layers (100 m), this station is quite suitable for detecting the environmental changes occurring in the open Adriatic Sea with respect to the circulation of its water masses and their long-term changes and anomalies. Multivariate methods were used to identify seasonal and inter-annual changes of the investigated parameters, associating observed changes to the changes in Adriatic water masses and circulation regimes. The analyses showed that bacterial abundance and production were controlled by different water mass dynamics during 1997-2001 compared to 2002-2006 period, particularly noticeable in different seasonal patterns of biological parameters. The interplay between North Adriatic Dense Water (NAdDW) and Levantine Intermediate Water (LIW) resulted in a change in the available nutrients (NAdDW is poor in orthophosphates), and as a consequence different bacterial abundance and production. A few periods were examined in detail, such as 2004, when LIW inflow was particularly strong and was accompanied by an increase of bacterial and HNF abundances, as well as of bacterial production.     

Chrystal and Proudman resonances simulated with three numerical models

The aim of this work was to study Chrystal and Proudman resonances in a simple closed basin and to explore and compare how well the two resonant mechanisms are reproduced with different, nowadays widely used, numerical ocean models. The test case was based on air pressure disturbances of two commonly used shapes (a sinusoidal and a boxcar), having various wave lengths, and propagating at different speeds. Our test domain was a closed rectangular basin, 300 km long with a uniform depth of 50 m, with the theoretical analytical solution available for benchmark. In total, 2250 simulations were performed for each of the three different numerical models: ADCIRC, SCHISM and ROMS. During each of the simulations, we recorded water level anomalies and computed the integral of the energy density spectrum for a number of points distributed along the basin. We have successfully documented the transition from Proudman to Chrystal resonance that occurs for a sinusoidal air pressure disturbance having a wavelength between one and two basin lengths. An inter-model comparison of the results shows that different models represent the two resonant phenomena in a slightly different way. For Chrystal resonance, all the models showed similar behavior; however, ADCIRC model providing slightly higher values of the mean resonant period than the other two models. In the case of Proudman resonance, the most consistent results, closest to the analytical solution, were obtained using ROMS model, which reproduced the mean resonant speed equal to 22.00 m/s— i.e., close to the theoretical value of 22.15 m/s. ADCIRC and SCHISM models showed small deviations from that value, with the mean speed being slightly lower—21.97 m/s (ADCIRC) and 21.93 m/s (SCHISM). The findings may seem small but could play an important role when resonance is a crucial process producing enhancing effects by two orders of magnitude (i.e., meteotsunamis).     

Deep water ventilation traced by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Synechococcus</Emphasis> cyanobacteria

The paper describes a finding of photoautotroph cyanobacteria Synechococcus in deep Adriatic waters during the spring of 2006. The maximum abundance in early May was positioned at 800 m, being of order of the values referred for the surface waters in the Adriatic Sea. The deep abundance maximum has been associated to the fast ventilation of deep Adriatic waters, usually occurring during wintertime strong cooling events. Two processes were detected: (1) deep convection in the South Adriatic Pit (SAP) and (2) density current going downslope. The first process was responsible for bringing the cyanobacteria down to 600-m depth in the area of convection, and the second one triggered the downslope transport of the cyanobacteria to the SAP very bottom. The depletion rate of Synechoccocus cyanobacteria in an extremely hostile environment has been computed to equal about 1 month.     

Effect of source-varying input data on erosion potential model performance

This paper examines the performance of the Erosion Potential Method (EPM or Gavrilovi?) and the model response to input data variations caused by choosing different sources of information for the same parameter. The research presented addresses the input data uncertainty via an analysis of the two model input parameters (the soil protection coefficient and the soil erodibility coefficient). The parameter uncertainty analysis is performed following two different approaches: uncertainty analyses of both the selected sample size and the entire population are conducted for an erosion assessment case study of the Dubra?ina River catchment, Croatia. The analysis indicated that, when changing the data source, significant changes in the model outcome values can occur (up to 47% for this case study). Future method modifications should consider the mitigation of these two parameters by potentially making structural changes in the model and therefore moderating the effect.     

Pseudo-global warming projections of extreme wave storms in complex coastal regions: the case of the Adriatic Sea

This numerical work aims to better understand the behavior of extreme Adriatic Sea wave storms under projected climate change. In this spirit, 36 characteristic events—22 bora and 14 sirocco storms occurring between 1979 and 2019, were selected and ran in evaluation mode in order to estimate the skill of the kilometer-scale Adriatic Sea and Coast (AdriSC) modelling suite used in this study and to provide baseline conditions for the climate change impact. The pseudo-global warming (PGW) methodology—which imposes an additional climatological change to the forcing used in the evaluation simulations, was implemented, for the very first time, for a coupled ocean–wave–atmosphere model and used to assess the behavior of the selected storms under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5 greenhouse gas projections. The findings of this experiment are that, on the one hand, the AdriSC model is found capable of reproducing both the Adriatic waves associated with the 36 storms and the northern Adriatic surges occurring during the sirocco events and, on the other hand, the significant wave heights and peak periods are likely to decrease during all future extreme events but most particularly during bora storms. The northern Adriatic storm surges are in consequence also likely to decrease during sirocco events. As it was previously demonstrated that the Adriatic extreme wind-wave events are likely to be less intense in a future warmer climate, this study also proved the validity of applying the PGW methodology to coupled ocean–wave–atmosphere models at the coastal and nearshore scales.

     

Draconids 2011: Outburst Observations by the Croatian Meteor Network

The predicted Draconid meteor shower outburst during October 2011 had been observed by a portion of the Croatian Meteor Network whose stations encountered clear weather. A total of 95 Draconid orbits have been calculated from 18 contributing stations, and in this paper we present results for 63 orbits obtained from the fully automatic observation and processing pipeline. Two methods of trajectory estimation were applied, showing better fit results using a linearly changing velocity model versus a constant velocity model. The estimated mean radiant position has been found to be at RA = 262.6°, Dec = +55.7°, with estimated geocentric velocity Vg = 20.7 km/s.     

Atmospheric mesoscale conditions during the Boothbay meteotsunami: a numerical sensitivity study using a high-resolution mesoscale model

The article aims to test the sensitivity of high-resolution mesoscale atmospheric model to fairly reproduce atmospheric processes that were present during the Boothbay Harbor meteotsunami on 28 October 2008. The simulations were performed by the Weather and Research Forecasting (WRF) model at 1-km horizontal grid spacing by varying initial conditions (ICs) and lateral boundary conditions (LBCs), nesting strategy, simulation lead time and microphysics and convective parameterizations. It seems that the simulations that used higher-resolution IC and LBC were more successful in reproduction of precipitation zone and surface pressure oscillations caused by internal gravity waves observed during the event. The results were very sensitive to the simulation lead time and to the choice of convective parameterization, while the choice of microphysics parameterization and the type of nesting strategy (one-way or two-way) was less important for reproducibility of the event. The success of the WRF model appears limited to very short-range forecasting, most advanced parameterizations, and very high-resolution grid spacing; therefore, the applicability of present atmospheric mesoscale models to future operational meteotsunami warning systems still has a lot of room for improvements.     

Dense water generation on a shelf: the case of the Adriatic Sea

The paper overviews recent and past studies of preconditioning, generation and spreading of North Adriatic Dense Water (NAdDW), by analysing both transient episodes and climatological data. The importance of wind stress, heat and water fluxes, and particularly river discharges during the preconditioning and generative period is emphasized, as well as the advection of saline levantine intermediate water from the southeast. After the generation, NAdDW affects deep and bottom layers of the middle and south Adriatic Sea, flowing as a dense current and mixing with the adjacent waters; it can be traced even in the Otranto Strait, contributing to the formation of deep water in the Eastern Mediterranean. Objective shortcomings and the projections in NAdDW investigations are also discussed, due to their high importance in the circulation of the Adriatic Sea, which may relate other similar basins around the world.