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Remote Monitoring of Mediterranean Hurricanes Using Infrasound

Authors :
Constantino Listowski
Edouard Forestier
Stavros Dafis
Thomas Farges
Marine De Carlo
Florian Grimaldi
Alexis Le Pichon
Julien Vergoz
Philippe Heinrich
Chantal Claud
Source :
Remote Sensing (2072-4292) (MDPI AG), 2022-12, Vol. 14, N. 23, P. 6162 (30p.), Remote Sensing; Volume 14; Issue 23; Pages: 6162
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2022.

Abstract

Mediterranean hurricanes, or medicanes, are tropical-like cyclones forming once or twice per year over the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. These mesocyclones pose a serious threat to coastal infrastructure and lives because of their strong winds and intense rainfall. Infrasound technology has already been employed to investigate the acoustic signatures of severe weather events, and this study aims at characterizing, for the first time, the infrasound detections that can be related to medicanes. This work also contributes to infrasound source discrimination efforts in the context of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. We use data from the infrasound station IS48 of the International Monitoring System in Tunisia to investigate the infrasound signatures of mesocyclones using a multi-channel correlation algorithm. We discuss the detections using meteorological fields to assess the presence of stratospheric waveguides favoring propagation. We corroborate the detections by considering other datasets, such as satellite observations, a surface lightning detection network, and products mapping the simulated intensity of the swell. High- and low-frequency detections are evidenced for three medicanes at distances ranging between 250 and 1100 km from the station. Several cases of non-detection are also discussed. While deep convective systems, and mostly lightning within them, seem to be the main source of detections above 1 Hz, hotspots of swell (microbarom) related to the medicanes are evidenced between 0.1 and 0.5 Hz. In the latter case, simulations of microbarom detections are consistent with the observations. Multi-source situations are highlighted, stressing the need for more resilient detection-estimation algorithms. Cloud-to-ground lightning seems not to explain all high-frequency detections, suggesting that additional sources of electrical or dynamical origin may be at play that are related to deep convective systems.

Details

ISSN :
20724292
Volume :
14
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Remote Sensing
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....aa561f6033832e1b305f70d421b7be15
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14236162