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| Titel |
Extreme precipitation on the island of Madeira on 20 February 2010 as seen by satellite passive microwave sounders |
| VerfasserIn |
Vincenzo Levizzani, Sante Laviola, Elsa Cattani, Maria João Costa |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2013
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 15 (2013) |
| Datensatznummer |
250081289
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The extreme precipitation event on the Island of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean on 20
February 2010 has triggered flash floods and mudslides in the southern slopes of the
island. The frontal system moving towards the northeast and originating from a
low-pressure center in the Madeira Archipelago is not unusual for the area, but
its consequences on the island environment were rather extreme. Several studies
demonstrated that the influence of the orography reinforced the precipitating system
enhancing the transition from stratiform to convective precipitation. However, to date no
studies are available in the literature on the structure of the clouds and precipitation
structure as well as on its local patterns. This work is focused on the analysis of the
precipitating event and its evolution using passive microwave sounding imagery from
polar orbiting satellites for the retrieval of rainfall intensity and cloud property
classification. The observations demonstrate that the heavy rainfall hitting the island at
midday on 20 February was generated by a severe convective event whose very local
character is due to orographic enhancement over the central mountain chain of the
island. Precipitation was of convective type lasting for a few hours around noon
and the observations confirm the numerical model results. Physically based cloud
classification also reveals a powerful tool for the monitoring of these severe rainstorms.
The results of the satellite observations show some potential for nowcasting in an
island environment with orography perpendicular to the main flow from the ocean. |
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