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Present climate trend analysis of the Etesian winds in the Aegean Sea

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Abstract

The main objective of the present study is to perform a trend analysis and investigate the possible changes in the frequency and wind intensity of the Etesians during June to September of the years 1979 to 2009. The analysis is based mainly on the use of Reanalysis-1 data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research. The results are indicative of negative trends in the frequency and wind speed (WS) of the Etesians. During the 31-year period studied, the total number of Etesian days from June to September decreased by about 4.6 days, while the monthly maximum intensity of the daily WS was reduced by almost 1 m s−1. The above indications are strengthened by similar results derived from the trend analysis of observational wind data in the central Aegean for the years 1955 to 2002. The negative trend in the frequency of the Etesian days could be explained by a decreasing trend in the pressure gradient between the central and southern Europe high-pressure center and the Middle East low-pressure center, which cause the Etesians system. In the study, a possible association between the Southern Oscillation and the Etesian winds is also revealed. The negative trend in the frequency and WS of the Etesian winds could imply a reduced cooling mechanism in the eastern Mediterranean in the summer period due to climate change.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement no. 218793 (project title: Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate). We thank Dr. Philandras, researcher of the Research Centre for Atmospheric Physics and Climatology of the Academy of Athens (Greece), for providing us with the dataset for the parameter L of the Etesian winds. We thank Dr. Kioutsioukis for the comments on the trend analysis. NCEP Reanalysis data and images were provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL Physical Sciences Division, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Anastasia Poupkou, Dimitrios Melas & Kleareti Tourpali

  2. Department of Meteorology and Climatology, School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Prodromos Zanis

  3. Laboratory of Climatology and Atmospheric Environment, Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Panagiotis Nastos

  4. Laboratory of Agricultural Engineering and Environment, Centre for Research and Technology—Thessaly, Institute of Technology and Management of Agricultural Ecosystems, Volos, Greece

    Dimitrios Papanastasiou

  5. Research Centre for Atmospheric Physics and Climatology, Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Christos Zerefos

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  1. Anastasia Poupkou
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Correspondence to Anastasia Poupkou.

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Poupkou, A., Zanis, P., Nastos, P. et al. Present climate trend analysis of the Etesian winds in the Aegean Sea. Theor Appl Climatol 106, 459–472 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-011-0443-7

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