Open AccessAssessment of the water supply to Mediterranean heavy precipitation: a method based on finely designed water budgets
Author(s) -
Duffourg F.,
Ducrocq V.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
atmospheric science letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.951
H-Index - 45
ISSN - 1530-261X
DOI - 10.1002/asl2.429
Subject(s) - mediterranean climate , mesoscale meteorology , environmental science , precipitation , moisture , climatology , mediterranean sea , water supply , meteorology , geology , environmental engineering , geography , archaeology
A major ingredient for Mediterranean Heavy Precipitating Events ( HPEs ) is the low‐level moisture transport towards the coast. This paper proposes a methodology allowing a spatially and temporally continuous study of the water supply to Mediterranean HPEs . It is based on water budgets computed from mesoscale numerical simulation outputs. The method is applied on four typical HPEs over Southeastern France. It allows to identify and assess quantitatively the contributions of local Mediterranean and remote African and Atlantic moisture sources.