Abstract
The main atmospheric circulation characteristics associated with high static instability conditions over the Athens region are examined for the period 1974–2004. The data used consist of daily (12UTC) values of: (1) 850, 700 and 500 hPa air temperature and dew point from radiosonde measurements at the Athens Hellinikon airport (BADC) and (2) 2.5 × 2.5 grid point 500 and 1,000 hPa geopotential height over the Mediterranean region (NCEP/NCAR), for the period 1974–2004. The stability index K (K-index) is calculated from the radiosonde measurements. Then, 5 % of the days (280 days) with the highest K values (highest instability days) are selected for the cold (16/10–15/4) and the warm (16/4–15/10) period of the year. For these days, a classification is applied to the geopotential height spatial distributions, by using Factor Analysis and K-means Cluster Analysis. The selected days are classified into nine clusters for the cold period and five clusters for the warm period. The mean 500 and 1,000 hPa geopotential height patterns are constructed for the days classified into each one of the clusters. According to the results, the clusters correspond to distinct circulation types associated with high instability conditions over the Athens region.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Andersson T, Andersson M, Jacobsson C, Nilsson S (1989) Thermodynamic indices for forecasting thunderstorms in southern Sweden. Meteorol Mag 118:141–146
Dalezios NR, Papamanolis NK (1991) Objective assessment of instability indices for operational hail forecasting in Greece. Meteorol Atmos Phys 45(1–2):87–100. doi:10.1007/BF01027477
Jacovides CP, Yonetani T (1990) An evaluation of stability indices for thunderstorm prediction in greater Cyprus. Weather Forecast 5:559–569
Jolliffe IT (1986) Principal component analysis. Springer, New York
Kalkstein LS, Nichols MC, Barthel CD, Greene JS (1996) A new spatial synoptic classification: application to air mass analysis. Int J Climatol 16:983–1004
Kalnay E, Kanamitsu M, Kistler R, Collins W, Deaven D, Gandin L, Iredell M, Saha S, White G, Woollen J, Zhu Y, Leetmaa A, Reynolds B, Chelliah M, Ebisuzaki W, Higgins W, Janowiak J, Mo KC, Ropelewski C, Wang J, Jenne R, Joseph D (1996) The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. B Am Meteorol Soc 77:437–471. doi:10.1175/1520-0477(1996) 077<0437:TNYRP>2.0.CO;2
Karacostas TS, Kakaliagou OK, Flocas EA (1991) An objective evaluation of two instability indices associated with forecasting convective storms over the north and central Greece. Geofiz 8:51–59
Kassomenos PA, Sindosi OA, Lolis CJ (2003) Seasonal variation of the circulation types occurring over southern Greece: a 50-year study. Clim Res 24:33–46. doi:10.3354/cr024033
Kistler R, Kalnay E, Collins W, Saha S, White G, Woollen J, Chelliah M, Ebisuzaki W, Kanamitsu M, Kousky V, van den Dool H, Jenne R, Fiorino M (2001) The NCEP/NCAR 50-year reanalysis: monthly means CD-ROM and documentation. B Am Meteorol Soc 82:247–267
Lolis CJ (2007) Climatic features of atmospheric stability in the Mediterranean region (1948–2006): spatial modes, inter-monthly, and inter-annual variability. Meteorol Appl 14:361–379. doi:10.1002/met.36
Marinaki A, Spiliotopoulos M, Michalopoulou H (2006) Evaluation of atmospheric instability indices in Greece. European Geosciences Union. Adv Geosci 7:131–135
Richman MB (1986) Rotation of principal components. J Climatol 6:293–335
Sharma S (1995) Applied multivariate techniques. Wiley, New York
Showalter AK (1953) A stability index for thunderstorm forecasting. B Am Meteorol Soc 34:250–252
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Serbis, E., Lolis, C.J., Kassomenos, P.A. (2013). Atmospheric Circulation Characteristics Associated with high Static Instability Conditions Over the Athens Region. In: Helmis, C., Nastos, P. (eds) Advances in Meteorology, Climatology and Atmospheric Physics. Springer Atmospheric Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29172-2_101
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29172-2_101
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-29171-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-29172-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)