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Climatology and classification of Spring Saharan cyclone tracks

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Abstract

Spring Saharan cyclones constitute a dominant feature of the not-well-explored Saharan region. In this manuscript, a climatological analysis and classification of Saharan cyclone tracks are presented using 6-hourly NCEP/NCAR sea level pressure (SLP) reanalyses over the Sahara (10°W–50°E, 20°N–50°N) for the Spring (March–April–May) season over the period 1958–2006. A simple tracking procedure based on following SLP minima is used to construct around 640 Spring Saharan cyclone tracks. Saharan cyclones are found to be short-lived compared to their extratropical counterparts with an e-folding time of about 3 days. The lee side of the west Atlas mountain is found to be the main cyclogenetic region for Spring Saharan cyclones. Central Iraq is identified as the main cyclolytic area. A subjective procedure is used next to classify the cyclone tracks where six clusters are identified. Among these clusters the Western Atlas–Asia Minor is the largest and most stretched, whereas Algerian Sahara–Asia Minor is composed of the most long-lived tracks. Upper level flow associated with the tracks has also been examined and the role of large scale baroclinicity in the growth of Saharan cyclones is discussed.

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Notes

  1. Or regenerated.

  2. A similar percentage of North Atlantic cyclones, with lifespan of 3 days or less, was found by Hanson et al. (2004) using both the ECMWF and NCEP/NCAR MSLP.

  3. Recall that the analysis of these authors was based only on a 18-year period of the ECMWF reanalyses.

  4. Alpert and Ziv (1989), however, suggest that latent heat may not constitute a major factor in Saharan cyclone maintenance or cyclogenesis.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that helped improve the manuscript. Thanks are also due to K. Hodges and J.G. Pinto for their comments on an earlier version of the paper and M. Abdelrahim for his help in preparing Fig. 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Meteorology, Reading University, PO Box 243, Reading, RG6 6BB, UK

    A. Hannachi

  2. Department of Meteorology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    A. Awad

  3. Department of Research, Meteorological Authority, Cairo, Egypt

    K. Ammar

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  1. A. Hannachi
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  2. A. Awad
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Correspondence to A. Hannachi.

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Hannachi, A., Awad, A. & Ammar, K. Climatology and classification of Spring Saharan cyclone tracks. Clim Dyn 37, 473–491 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-010-0941-9

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