A global perspective on western Mediterranean precipitation extremes

The Mediterranean region has been declared a climate change hotspot due, among other reasons, to an expected increase in the torrential rains that frequently affect this densely populated area. However, the extent to which these torrential rains are connected to other regions outside the Mediterrane...

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Published in:npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
Main Authors: Insua Costa, Damián, Senande-Rivera, Martín, Llasat Botija, María del Carmen, Miguez Macho, Gonzalo
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Springer Nature 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2445/197624
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spelling ftubarcepubl:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/197624 2024-02-11T10:06:27+01:00 A global perspective on western Mediterranean precipitation extremes Insua Costa, Damián Senande-Rivera, Martín Llasat Botija, María del Carmen Miguez Macho, Gonzalo 2022-12-01 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2445/197624 eng eng Springer Nature Reproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-022-00234-w npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, 2022, vol. 5, num. 1 Articles publicats en revistes (Física Aplicada) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-022-00234-w 2397-3722 http://hdl.handle.net/2445/197624 721224 cc-by (c) Insua Costa, Damián et al., 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Precipitacions (Meteorologia) Mediterrània occidental Canvi climàtic Precipitations (Meteorology) Western Mediterranean Climatic change info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2022 ftubarcepubl https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-022-00234-w 2024-01-24T01:20:18Z The Mediterranean region has been declared a climate change hotspot due, among other reasons, to an expected increase in the torrential rains that frequently affect this densely populated area. However, the extent to which these torrential rains are connected to other regions outside the Mediterranean remains uncertain. Here we simulate 160 extreme precipitation events with an atmospheric model enabled for state-of-the-art moisture tracking and demonstrate that large scale moisture transport is a more important factor than evaporation over local sources. We find that the average precipitation fraction with source in the Mediterranean is only 35%, while 10% is from evapotranspiration over nearby land in continental Europe and 25% originates in the North Atlantic. The remaining 30% comes from several more distant source regions, sometimes as remote as the tropical Pacific or the Southern Hemisphere, indicating direct connections with multiple locations on the planet and a global scale energy redistribution. Our results point to the importance of approaching these extreme episodes from a more global rather than purely regional perspective, especially when attempting to attribute them to climate change Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona Pacific npj Climate and Atmospheric Science 5 1
institution Open Polar
collection Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona
op_collection_id ftubarcepubl
language English
topic Precipitacions (Meteorologia)
Mediterrània occidental
Canvi climàtic
Precipitations (Meteorology)
Western Mediterranean
Climatic change
spellingShingle Precipitacions (Meteorologia)
Mediterrània occidental
Canvi climàtic
Precipitations (Meteorology)
Western Mediterranean
Climatic change
Insua Costa, Damián
Senande-Rivera, Martín
Llasat Botija, María del Carmen
Miguez Macho, Gonzalo
A global perspective on western Mediterranean precipitation extremes
topic_facet Precipitacions (Meteorologia)
Mediterrània occidental
Canvi climàtic
Precipitations (Meteorology)
Western Mediterranean
Climatic change
description The Mediterranean region has been declared a climate change hotspot due, among other reasons, to an expected increase in the torrential rains that frequently affect this densely populated area. However, the extent to which these torrential rains are connected to other regions outside the Mediterranean remains uncertain. Here we simulate 160 extreme precipitation events with an atmospheric model enabled for state-of-the-art moisture tracking and demonstrate that large scale moisture transport is a more important factor than evaporation over local sources. We find that the average precipitation fraction with source in the Mediterranean is only 35%, while 10% is from evapotranspiration over nearby land in continental Europe and 25% originates in the North Atlantic. The remaining 30% comes from several more distant source regions, sometimes as remote as the tropical Pacific or the Southern Hemisphere, indicating direct connections with multiple locations on the planet and a global scale energy redistribution. Our results point to the importance of approaching these extreme episodes from a more global rather than purely regional perspective, especially when attempting to attribute them to climate change
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Insua Costa, Damián
Senande-Rivera, Martín
Llasat Botija, María del Carmen
Miguez Macho, Gonzalo
author_facet Insua Costa, Damián
Senande-Rivera, Martín
Llasat Botija, María del Carmen
Miguez Macho, Gonzalo
author_sort Insua Costa, Damián
title A global perspective on western Mediterranean precipitation extremes
title_short A global perspective on western Mediterranean precipitation extremes
title_full A global perspective on western Mediterranean precipitation extremes
title_fullStr A global perspective on western Mediterranean precipitation extremes
title_full_unstemmed A global perspective on western Mediterranean precipitation extremes
title_sort global perspective on western mediterranean precipitation extremes
publisher Springer Nature
publishDate 2022
url http://hdl.handle.net/2445/197624
geographic Pacific
geographic_facet Pacific
genre North Atlantic
genre_facet North Atlantic
op_relation Reproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-022-00234-w
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, 2022, vol. 5, num. 1
Articles publicats en revistes (Física Aplicada)
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-022-00234-w
2397-3722
http://hdl.handle.net/2445/197624
721224
op_rights cc-by (c) Insua Costa, Damián et al., 2022
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-022-00234-w
container_title npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
container_volume 5
container_issue 1
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