DATE2022-05-12 13:18:41
IDABSTRACT20220512131841-198
CONTACTroberta.dagostino@mpimet.mpg.de
PRESENTATIONORAL
INVITED0
IDSESSION3
TITLEMechanisms for past and future changes of atmospheric moisture budget in the Mediterranean region
AUTHORSRoberta Dagostino (1,2) ,Piero Lionello (3,4)
AFFILIATIONS
  1. 1) Max Planck Institute For Meteorology, Hamburg (Germany) ,2) University Of Trento, Trento (Italy) ,3) University Of Salento, Lecce (Italy) ,4) Euro Mediterranean Center On Climate Change, Lecce (Italy)
ABSTRACTThe sensitivity of Mediterranean atmospheric moisture budget (P-E) and mechanisms for its seasonal changes have been investigated in model simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and Representative Concentration Pathway scenario (rcp8.5) relative to pre-Industrial (PI). The decomposition of (P-E) in thermodynamic, dynamic, transient eddy and surface terms revealed that mechanisms for (P-E) changes in the Mediterranean do not follow a simple temperature scaling and they cannot be simply described by the thermodynamic contribution associated with the “wet-get-wetter, dry-get-drier” paradigm. Winter changes are caused by the anomalous mean atmospheric circulation (dynamic and transient eddy terms), while summer changes are largely associated with the thermodynamics. The Mediterranean response to climate change differs from the averaged behavior of other regions at the same latitudinal belt. The complex spatial interplay of the atmospheric moisture budget components makes the Mediterranean a peculiar region, which seasonal hydroclimate variations rely on different physical mechanisms not simply linked to changes of global mean temperature.
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