Open AccessUse of METEOSAT water‐vapour images for the diagnosis of a vigorous stratospheric intrusion over the central Mediterranean
Author(s) -
Lagouvardos K,
Kotroni V
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
meteorological applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1469-8080
pISSN - 1350-4827
DOI - 10.1017/s1350482700001596
Subject(s) - thunderstorm , cold front , environmental science , intrusion , front (military) , mediterranean climate , potential vorticity , troposphere , climatology , water vapor , meteorology , lightning (connector) , warm front , severe weather , geology , atmospheric sciences , geography , storm , vorticity , vortex , power (physics) , physics , geochemistry , archaeology , quantum mechanics
The diagnosis of a vigorous dry intrusion over the central Mediterranean is performed using water‐vapour images from METEOSAT. This dry intrusion was located on the rear side of a cold front (propagating from Italy to Greece) and played an important role in the onset of thunderstorms over the western Greek coasts. A combination of satellite imagery and potential vorticity analyses showed that the dry air originated in the lower‐stratospheric and higher‐tropospheric layers. The interaction of the dry air with the moist air masses within the warm conveyor belt ahead of the cold front (overrun of warm air by low equivalent potential temperature air) produced a potentially unstable region over the area of reported thunderstorms. Copyright © 2000 Royal Meteorological Society