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Assessing meteotsunami potential of high-frequency air pressure oscillations observed in the middle Adriatic

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Abstract

High-resolution air pressure series collected from a triangle of middle Adriatic microbarograph stations between April 2009 and March 2011 have been analysed to extract the rapid pressure changes normally found during meteotsunamis. Five-minute air pressure tendencies were used to detect an event. Wavelet and cross-wavelet analysis showed that the energies of high-frequency pressure changes that occurred during the warm part of the year were an order of magnitude higher than those that occurred during the cold part of the year. Coherence between stations was normally found at periods longer than 1 h, while air pressure disturbances were dispersive and not coherent at shorter periods. This implies that the disturbances had little to no potential to generate meteotsunamis in the middle Adriatic area, as the eigenoscillations in bays and harbours of the region are over timescales of minutes up to a few tens of minutes.

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Acknowledgements

We are indebted to S. Muslim, D. Ivanković, S. Marasović, and I. Vučić who have been responsible for the proper functioning of the microbarograph network. Two reviewers provided valuable comments and improved the manuscript. The work of F. Charayrre was conducted during his internship at the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries. Support of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports (Grant 001-0013077-1122) is acknowledged.

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Correspondence to Ivica Vilibić.

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Vilibić, I., Mihanović, H. & Charrayre, F. Assessing meteotsunami potential of high-frequency air pressure oscillations observed in the middle Adriatic. Nat Hazards 74, 217–232 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-0865-x

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