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Atmospheric Forcing Conducive for the Adriatic 25 June 2014 Meteotsunami Event

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Abstract

We analyze atmospheric conditions conducive for a meteotsunami event that occurred in the Adriatic on 25 June 2014. This was the most intensive of a series of meteotsunami events which occurred in the Mediterranean and Black Seas during 23–27 June 2014 period. Considerable sea-level oscillations were observed in several eastern Adriatic harbors with a maximum wave height of around 3 m and period of approximately 20 min observed in Vela Luka harbor, Korčula Island, Croatia. Observational analysis of the event utilizes available in situ and remote sensing measurements. For a more detailed insight into the structure of the atmosphere we reproduced the event with the WRF model configured at a sub-kilometer grid spacing. Observational and simulated data both demonstrate that sea-level oscillations in Vela Luka harbor were caused by rapid air–pressure perturbations with amplitudes of up to 4 hPa and a maximal rate of air pressure change above 2 hPa/5 min. Around the time pressure perturbations affected the area, pressure distribution was affected by both convection and internal gravity waves, with both wave-CISK and wave duct promoting maintenance of pressure perturbations. This makes the 2014 Adriatic event the first known meteotsunami event in the Mediterranean and Black Seas during which both of these maintenance mechanisms acted jointly. Finally, simulations performed in this event represented meteotsunami-related pressure perturbations at the adequate time and location, which is a step forward in the ability of atmospheric models to assist early warning meteotsunami systems for the Mediterranean and the Black Seas.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all organisations that kindly provided us the data used in this study: European Centre for Middle-range Weather Forecast, Reading (http://www.ecmwf.int); European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (http://www.eumetsat.int); Hydrographic Institute of the Republic of Croatia, Split; Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Split, Croatia; and Meteorological and Hydrological Service, Zagreb, Croatia. The work of KH and JS has been supported by the Croatian Science Foundation under the project MESSI (UKF Grant no. 25/15). MTP thanks the Croatian Science Foundation (HrZZ) project VITCLIC (PKP-2016-06-2975) which is funded by the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund under the Government Program (Ministry of Environment and Energy and Ministry of Science and Education) for the Promotion of Research and Development Activities in the Field of Climate Change for the period 2015–2016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Meteorological and Hydrological Service, Grič3, 10000, Split, Zagreb, Croatia

    Kristian Horvath

  2. Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Šetalište I. Meštrovića 63, 21000, Split, Croatia

    Jadranka Šepić

  3. Department of Geophysics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Horvatovac 95, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Maja Telišman Prtenjak

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  1. Kristian Horvath
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  2. Jadranka Šepić
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  3. Maja Telišman Prtenjak
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Correspondence to Kristian Horvath.

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Horvath, K., Šepić, J. & Prtenjak, M.T. Atmospheric Forcing Conducive for the Adriatic 25 June 2014 Meteotsunami Event. Pure Appl. Geophys. 175, 3817–3837 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-018-1902-1

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