1.        Peters, H. and M. Orlić (2005): Turbulent mixing in the springtime central Adriatic Sea. Geofizika, 22, 1-19. 

 

ABSTRACT:

 

A small set of observations of upper ocean turbulent mixing, stratification and currents was obtained in the central Adriatic Sea in May 2003. Owing to light winds, the surface mixed layer was at most 10 m thick and usually much thinner. The water column below was mostly strongly stratified with partially restratified remnant of previous mixed layers. Mesoscale currents were weak with a significant barotropic component. Weak shear and strong stratification tended to combine to large Richardson numbers. Below a layer of enhanced mixing in the upper 10–20 m, eddy diffusivities were mostly small, ranging from 10–6 m2 s–1 to about 5 x 10–5 m2 s–1. Much larger values occurred in a few events, however.

 

Keywords: microstructure, turbulence, Adriatic

 

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2.        Koračin, D., D. F. Leipper and J.M. Lewis (2005): Modeling sea fog on the U.S. California coastduring a hot spell event. Geofizika, 22, 59-82.

 

ABSTRACT:

 

       The occurrence of sea fog along the U.S. Pacific Coast in summer is frequently associated with the movement of a high pressure system from the eastern Pacific to the land. Subsequently there is strong heating of the land over several days or more and development of »hot spells« and offshore flows in the coastal region preceding sea fog formation. This study focuses on modeling the formation and evolution of sea fog in response to interaction between the warm and dry offshore flows and the cool and moist marine atmospheric boundary layer. Simulation results support a conceptual model of fog formation and evolution based on physical processes initiated by offshore flows that efficiently lower the marine inversion near the sea surface. In spite of the warm and dry advection, fog formed in the shallow, near-surface marine layer capped by a strong temperature inversion of 10 °C or more and a hot-air layer above the inversion. Prior to sea fog formation, negative surface heat flux initiates cooling and condensation, while the surface moisture flux contributes to increased humidity and turbulence within the surface layer. The dryness of the hot-air layer overlying the shallow and moist marine layer triggers enhanced radiative cooling at the marine layer top and facilitates the marine layer’s saturation. The thin cloud forms, rapidly propagates downward, and transforms into fog. As soon as the fog is formed, longwave radiative cooling at its top generates turbulent mixing and the growth of the fog as a mixed layer. Due to the fog-top radiative cooling, the fog layer is initially colder than the underlying surface. In the later stage of the fog evolution, continuous mixing of the cool and moist near-surface air with the dry and warm layer above the inversion during the fog growth generally curtails turbulence. This process elevates the lifting condensation level and can lead to sea fog dissipation or generation of stratus.

 

Keywords: Air-sea interaction, longwave radiation cooling, marine atmospheric boundary layer, numerical simulations, offshore flows, offshore fog, U.S. West Coast

 

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3.        Stiperski, I. (2005): The causes of supercell development with tornadogenesis on 30th August 2003 – A case study. Geofizika, 22, 83-105.

 

ABSTRACT:

 

A supercell storm with tornadogenesis in the afternoon hours of the 30th August 2003 in NW Croatia is studied. As was seen from radar and satellite material the cell developed in Slovenia and crossed into Croatia, where interacting with favorable wind patterns (indicated by high SREH and vertical wind shear) it evolved into a supercell. Macroscale forcing was found to be lacking. On the other hand, the pattern, characterized by a pronounced thermal ridge and a baroclinic boundary associated with it, was favorable for supercell generation as has been seen in several studies in the USA. Mesoscale forcing was also enhanced by the existence of the jet stream and outflow boundaries from previous convection associated with a night-time cold front passage. Several severe storm and stability indices were tested for this case and it has been found that they generally did not correspond to the severity of the convection that took place.

 

Keywords: Supercell, baroclinic boundary

 

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4.        Roy, S. S., R. K. Datta, R. C. Bhatia and A. K. Sharma (2005): Drop size distributions of tropical rainover south India. Geofizika, 22, 105-130.

 

ABSTRACT:

 

Drop size distributions (DSD) associated with tropical rainfall at Cuddalore in the south-eastern part of India have been measured by a Joss-Waldvogel disdrometer (RD–80 model) during September to November 2002. The rainfall data corrected for instrumental error, matches very well with rainfall rates measured by a self recording raingauge, at the same site. For further analysis of the DSD, the rainfall events were separated into convective and stratiform rainfall by an algorithm based on variation of DSD parameters. One rain event in the form of a squall line of 15 September 2002, was analysed in greater detail to investigate the validity of the classification scheme as well as to study the variation of the DSD parameters during the course of a rain event. It was observed that, the algorithm was robust and had quite good correspondence with other independent rainfall separation algorithms. During the rain event, at low rainrates, the convective phase of the rainfall event was marked by DSD spectra that have greater population of small droplets as compared to stratiform DSDs at the same rainrates. At higher rainrates, the convective regime is characterised by narrow spectra centred at higher diameters. At the transition region between convective and stratiform spectra, mixed large and small drop spectra are observed. Similar variation was also observed in the averaged drop spectra. In addition, the averaged spectra also reveal an equilibrium distribution of the drop population in DSDs at higher rainrates (>39 /hr) for diameter range (>1.91 mm) corresponding to nearly constant values of the slope of the distribution, the intercept and the mean mass diameter. The value of the shape parameter, which for small rainrates varies the same as the slope parameter, starts to increase with increasing rainrate as the other two parameters of the gamma distribution approach a constant value corresponding to equilibrium shape. The value of the intercept parameter is highest for low to moderate convective rainfall and decreases as the rainrate increases.

 

Keywords: Convective, stratiform rainfall, disdrometer, deadtime correction, squall line, gamma distribution, drop coalescence, aggregation, riming

 

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5.        Vilibić, I., M. Orlić, S. Čupić, N. Domijan, N. Leder, H. Mihanović, M. Pasarić, Z. Pasarić, M. Srdelić and G. Strinić (2005): A new approach to sea level observations in Croatia. Geofizika, 21, 21-57.

 

ABSTRACT:

 

       The paper comprises an overview of recent international and national efforts and activities directed towards the improvement of tide gauge network on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. A brief overview of the available measuring techniques is given first. Then the characteristics of Adriatic sea level are outlined, followed by a note on the history of sea level measurements and research in the Adriatic. The present sea level related activities are introduced by the institutional structure in Croatia, followed by a summary of recent projects and programmes (European Sea Level Service – Research Infrastructure (ESEAS-RI), Mediterranean Global Observing Sea Level System (MedGLOSS), Project Adriatic and Adriatic Tides and Sea Level On-line). Concrete activities on the upgrade of Croatian tide gauges, data acquisition and maintenance, and on-line data presentation are presented in detail. In addition, the initiation of measurements of vertical land movements is documented, as a Continuous GPS antenna and receiver (CGPS) has been installed in 2004 at the roof of the Split Harbour tide gauge. A lot of effort has been put into the rescue of historical sea level records, both by digitising and scanning of the charts, which will prevent data loss in case of their ruination or disappearance. Finally, the impact of the recent activities on the scientific exploration of high-frequency resonant coupling of air pressure disturbances with the eastern Adriatic waters is highlighted in the paper, as such research is not possible to carry out properly with the measuring systems based on the analog records.

 

Keywords: Adriatic Sea, tide gauge, sea level, projects, upgrade, data maintenance and archaeology, scientific outcome

 

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6.        Roy Bhowmik, S. K., D. Joardar and A. K. Das (2005): Radius of rainfall influence over Indianmonsoon region. Geofizika, 22, 131-141.

 

ABSTRACT:

 

       The paper describes an analysis of rain gauge data to determine an appropriate radius of influence to use for the objective analysis of rainfall over Indian monsoon region. The correlation co-efficient (CC) of rainfall between rain gauges in discrete distance intervals is computed, and the distance at which CC falls to 0.3 is chosen as the radius of rainfall influence. The method is applied for the monthly mean rainfall observations for June, July and August of Indian summer monsoon 2001. The method is also tested for a few case studies in relation to varying geographical and synoptic situations. The study shows that the radius of influence of rainfall over Indian region, in general, is around 200 km, but it has certain day to day variations depending on the prevailing synoptic conditions. The finding of the study is expected to be very useful for the objective analysis of rainfall over Indian region.

 

Keywords: objective analysis of rainfall, radius of rainfall influence, monsoon

 

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