The role of the subtropical jet stream during heat wave events over north-central Greece

Summary The role of the subtropical jet stream (SJ) in the occurrence of heat waves in South Balkans and Greece is sought here. For this purpose ECMWF grid-point data is examined, concerning the Balkan heat wave of 5–9 July 1988, that cost human lifes, at least in Greece. For the city of Thessaloniki, Greece, a temperature budget is presented, as a function of time. It turns out that the most important heating mechanism is the adiabatic heating. Horizontal mass convergence at the maximum wind level (200 hPa) causes descent and adiabatic heating. The convergence occurs in association with the Hadley Cell, as well as with the right exit quadrant of an anticyclonically curved subtropical jet streak. As air parcels that exit the above jet streak slow down and turn anticyclonically, a strong ageostrophic wind current is established towards and to the right of the flow direction. This ageostrophic current converges above the northeastern Balkans. Downward ageostrophic motion emerges from the above area of horizontal convergence and heads towards the SSW, affecting the Balkans. From the above case study, it is concluded that intense heat waves are favoured in the South Balkans and Greece when the SJ is anticyclonically curved to the north of the Balkans and a jet streak is situated to the north west of the Balkans.     

Surface fault traces,fault plane solution and spatial distribution of the aftershocks of the September 13, 1986 earthquake of Kalamata (Southern Greece)

A shallow earthquake ofM _S=6.2 occurred in the southern part of the Peloponnesus, 12 km north of the port of the city of Kalamata, which caused considerable damage. The fault plane solution of the main shock, geological data and field observations, as well as the distribution of foci of aftershocks, indicate that the seismic fault is a listric normal one trending NNE-SSW and dipping to WNW. The surface ruptures caused by the earthquake coincide with the trace of a neotectonic fault, which is located 2–3 km east of the city of Kalamata and which is related to the formation of Messiniakos gulf during the Pliocene-Quaternary tectonics. Field observations indicate that the earthquake is due to the reactivation of the same fault.A three-days aftershock study in the area, with portable seismographs, recorded many aftershocks of which 39 withM _S1.7 were very well located. The distribution of aftershocks forms two clusters, one near the epicenter of the main shock in the northern part of the seismogenic volume, and the other near the epicenter of the largest aftershock (M _S=5.4) in the southern part of this volume. The central part of the area lacks aftershocks, which probably indicates that this is the part of the fault which slipped smoothly during the earthquake.     

Evidence for transform faulting in the Ionian sea: The Cephalonia island earthquake sequence of 1983

Accurate locations of aftershocks of the January 17, 1983 (M _s=7.0) main shock in the Ionian islands have been determined, as well as fault plane solutions for this main shock and its largest aftershock, which are interpreted as a right-lateral, strike-slip motion with a thrust component, on a fault striking in about a NE-SW direction.This is considered as a transform fault in the northwesternmost part of the Hellenic arc.     

A Study of Fog Characteristics Using a Coupled WRF–COBEL Model Over Thessaloniki Airport, Greece

An attempt is made to couple the one dimensional COBEL-ISBA (Code de Brouillard à l’échelle Locale-Interactions Soil Biosphere Atmosphere) model with the WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting)–ARW (Advanced Research WRF) numerical weather prediction model to study a fog event that formed on 20 January 2008 over Thessaloniki Airport, Greece. It is the first time that the coupling of COBEL and WRF models is achieved and applied to a fog event over an airport. At first, the performance of the integrated WRF–COBEL system is investigated, by validating it against the available surface observations. The temperature and humidity vertical profiles were used for initializing the model. The performance of WRF–COBEL is considered successful, since it realistically simulated the fog onset and dissipation better than the WRF alone. The COBEL’s sensitivity to initial conditions such as temperature and specific humidity perturbations was also tested. It is found that a small increase of temperature (~1°C) counteracts fog development and results in less fog density. On the other hand, a small decrease of temperature results in much denser fog formation. It is concluded that the integrated model approach for aviation applications can be useful to study fog impact on local traffic and aviation.     

Objective climatology of 500-hPa cyclones in central and east mediterranean region during warm-dry period of the year

Summary ¶An Objective 500-hPa cyclone detection and analysis is performed during the warm-dry period (16 April to 15 October) of the year for the Central and Eastern Mediterranean Region (30°N–50°N, 5°E–35°E). The 40-year NCEP/NCAR reanalyzes gridded data of geopotential height and temperature employed in the study, enable a climatic approach with a spatial (2.5°×2.5°) and a 6-hour temporal (00, 06, 12, 18 UTC) resolution. The occurrence frequency for the entire region shows a high interannual variability without significant trends. The frequency maximization over land in the middle of the warm period indicates a possible relationship with land-air temperature difference. Three primary activity centers (Turkey, Black Sea and Genoa) are objectively determined in the frequency domain as local maxima and their intensity is assessed in terms of average geopotential height and temperature values. The Turkey center, though the most frequent, consists of shallow lows in contrast to the Black Sea center, which is second in frequency, but on average, contains the deepest lows amongst the three. The Genoa center, which comes third in frequency, shows the highest variability in the intensity of the lows. Frequency distributions in the area, during the three sub periods (Early, Middle and Late Warm Period) and during the four synoptic hours, provide insight in to the origins of these systems at the three locations and reveal secondary centers, such as the centers in the Adriatic (at 18 UTC), Northern Greece (during Middle Warm Period) and the South Aegean Sea (during Late Warm Period).Received February 20, 2002; revised November 4, 2002; accepted January 16, 2003 Published online July 30, 2003     

Properties of the 1979 Monte Negro (southwest Yugoslavia) seismic sequence

Focal properties of the Monte Negro earthquake (15 April 1979,M=7.1) and its seismic sequence (foreshocks and aftershocks), which occurred near the southwestern coast of Yugoslavia, are investigated. Fault plane solutions of the main shock and its largest aftershock (24 May 1979,M=6.3) and the spatial distribution of the shocks of this sequence show that the seismic fault strikes about southeast-northwest (parallel to the coast) and dips northeast (towards the continent). It is a strike-slip left-lateral fault with a considerable thrust component. Its length is 95 km and its width 12 km. An aseismic belt, which separated the aftershock foci into two groups (the northwestern and southeastern), is interpreted as a section of the fault that slipped smoothly during the main shock. The aftershock foci were barriers where stress had been induced. One of these barriers broke later and produced the largest aftershock of 24 May.     

A deep stratospheric intrusion event down to the earth’s surface of the megacity of Athens

This case study investigates a stratospheric intrusion event down to the earth’s surface (near sea-level pressure) of the greater area of Athens (23.43°E 37.58°N), which occurred on 9 October 2003 and caused a remarkable increase in surface ozone concentrations not related to photochemical production. This event is among the rare case studies investigating, on the one hand, a deep stratospheric intrusion down to the earth’s surface at near sea-level pressure and, on the other, an event affecting the near surface ozone of a megacity such as Athens. The synoptic situation is described by a deep upper lever trough at 300 and 500 hPa extending over Greece, which is related to a deep tropopause fold as revealed by vertical cross sections of potential vorticity, relative humidity, divergence and vertical velocity. The analysis of potential vorticity at several isentropic levels indicates a hook-shaped streamer of high PV values (greater than 4 pvu at the 315 K isentropic level) over southeast Europe, which coincides with a streamer of dry air as observed from satellite images of water vapor. The aforementioned structure characterizes a textbook case study of stratosphere-to-troposphere transport. The Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART was used to calculate the trajectories of air particles reaching the receptor site and the fraction of particles with stratospheric origin. It reveals an important direct stratospheric impact within 1 day related to the tropopause fold described in this study with the fraction of stratospheric particles reaching maximum values of 1.9 and 4.5% for threshold values of the dynamical tropopause 2 and 1.5 pvu, respectively. Furthermore, a larger indirect aged stratospheric contribution is also revealed 4 to 5 days prior to the release, related to stratospheric intrusion events at the western Atlantic Ocean, reaching maximum values of 2.5 and 6.9% of particles crossing the 2 and 1.5 pvu potential vorticity surfaces, respectively.     

Climatological aspects of extreme precipitation in Europe, related to mid-latitude cyclonic systems

Climatic aspects of extreme European precipitation are studied. Daily pluviometric data from 280 stations across Europe, covering the period from 1958 to 2000, are used. First, the criteria for extreme precipitation cases and episodes are communicated using threshold and spatial definitions. The cases and episodes meeting these criteria are grouped according to their area of appearance. Most of them are located in three major areas: Greece, the Alps, and the Iberian Peninsula. The existence of trends in the annual and seasonal time series of these extreme events is examined. Decreasing trends are found in most of the cases, for Greece, the Iberian Peninsula, and Europe, as a whole. The Alps present a different behavior, with no trend at all in the southern part, and a possible increasing trend in the northern part. Finally, the positive impact of altitude in the frequency of occurrence of extreme precipitation episodes in Europe is discussed.     

A systematic hailpad calibration procedure for operational hail suppression in Greece

Summary Hailpads are used to provide quantitative hailfall measurements in several hail experiments and hail suppression operations around the world. The dented hailpads record the time-integrated size distribution and concentration of hailfall. In the five-year Greek National Hail Suppression Program (GNHSP) hailpad data have been used to estimate the global (impact) energy of hailswaths for the evaluation of the GNHSP.In this paper a systematic hailpad calibration procedure is developed applicable to operational programs. To meet this objective a calibration experiment has been conducted consisting of several tests to: consider differences between pad types; to examine the effects of ultra violet-light on hailpads for varying periods of time; to investigate the effect of painting and inking of the hailpad surfaces; to consider the effect of analyst's variability, loose hailpad stands, and bouneing; and to develop calibration eqqations. The concluded results seem to justify the design and performance of the hailpad calibration procedure.With 9 Figures     

Drought assessment for the potential of precipitation enhancement in northern Greece

The paper is part of a series earlier studies in which the precipitation enhancement potential in central and northern Greece is assessed. A drought analysis is performed in this study. In particular, the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) is used for the quantitative estimation of droughts on a monthly basis. Emphasis is placed on drought identification and estimation as well as the severity and areal extent of the phenomenon. The results indicate that there are several drought periods which are common to all stations in central and northern Greece, characterized by significant severity and time duration. There are also a large number of drought periods during the summer months as well as during the winter months.With 7 Figures