Abstract
The Jan. 2014 Bora storm had a measurable impact in the northern Adriatic. At Senigallia, in the wake of the storm, the EsCoSed field experiment (Brocchini et al. in Geology 385:27–40, 2017) recorded 5-cm sea-level fluctuations with a characteristic period of 100 min, exhibiting a distinctive, discrete frequency spectrum. Sea level oscillations of similar height and time periods were also recorded by tidal gauge at Venice. Given the sensitivity of Venice flooding to sea-level perturbations and the localized, basin-transversal jet structure of the Bora winds, the observations are both significant and surprising. We hypothesize that the oscillations were caused by wind setup generated by the Bora jets, and investigate the event using a simplified, linear mathematical model. Model simulations support the wind setup hypothesis and suggest that the oscillations observed were a mixture of edge-waves and two-dimensional seiches with a significant basin-transversal component. The spatial structure of seiches explains the basin-longitudinal reach of Bora storm. A comparison with the analysis of Venice historical records of extreme sea level events, compiled by Ferrarin et al. (Sci Rep 12(1):1–11, 2022), shows that Bora-induced oscillations are of the same order of magnitude as general seiche constituents. Their contribution, however is, much less understood. Further work is needed to evaluate the flooding threat posed by Bora storms.
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Availability of data and materials
The data are available by request from Drs. Brocchini, Sheremet, or Calantoni.
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Acknowledgments
Mr. Qayyum and Prof. Sheremet were supported by NSFGOE-NERC grant No. 1737274, and NRL cooperative agreement award No. N00173 -21-2-C900. Prof. Sheremet is grateful for the support and advice of Prof. V.I. Shrira, Keele University, UK. Prof. Brocchini was supported by the Office of Naval Research Global (UK) MORSE Project (Research Grant Number N62909-17-1-2148), the MIUR PRIN 2017 Project, Italy “FUNdamentals of BREAKing wave-induced boundary dynamics — FUNBREAK” (Grant Number 20172B7MY9), and Parco Nazionale del Circeo (Lazio Region, Italy). We wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of the manuscript, and insightful comments and suggestions.
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Drs Calantoni, Brocchini and Sheremet participated in the data collection effort. The approach was designed in collaboration by Drs. Brocchini and Sheremet. Dr. Sheremet analyzed the observational data. The mathematical model and approach to numerical simulations were developed by Dr. Sheremet and Mr. Qayyum. All numerical simulations were conducted by Mr. Qayyum. Observations at locations other than Senigallia were collected by Dr. Melito.
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Qayyum, R., Melito, L., Calantoni, J. et al. Sea level perturbations caused by Bora in the northern Adriatic. Nat Hazards 114, 3849–3860 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-022-05490-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-022-05490-w