Abstract
This study shed light on the long term air temperature changes in the troposphere over the Mediterranean. For this purpose, we utilized the radiosonde datasets for the barometric levels at 850, 700, 500, 300, 200, 150, and 100 hPa from seventeen meteorological stations within the Mediterranean, for the period 1965–2015. Besides, the gridded reanalysis products of upper air temperature for the respective barometric pressure levels from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF, ERA-Interim) and the National Center for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP–NCAR) were used and compared to stations’ datasets. We analyzed the trends and variability of upper air temperature on seasonal and annual basis. The impact of atmospheric circulation, by means of specific climatic indices such as Mediterranean Oscillation Index (MOI), North Sea Caspian Pattern Index (NCPI) and North Atlantic Oscillation Index (NAOI), was also examined. The results of our analysis indicate the anthropogenic forcing to climate variability, especially in lower/middle troposphere against upper troposphere over the Mediterranean.
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
Dee DP et al (2011) The ERA-Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system. Q J R Meteorol Soc 137:553–597
Dunion JP, Marron CS (2008) A reexamination of the Jordan mean tropical sounding based on awareness of the Saharan air layer: results from 2002. J Climatol 21:5242–5253
Kalnay E, Kanamitsu M, Kistler R, Collins W, Deaven D, Gandin L, Iredell M, Saha S, White G, Woollen J, Zhu Y, Chelliah M, Ebisuzaki W, Higgins W, Janowiak J, Mo KC, Ropelewski C, Wang J, Leetmaa A, Reynolds R, Jenne R, Joseph D (1996) The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 77:437–471
Li Y, Yan J, Sui X (2012) Tropospheric temperature inversion over central China. Atmos Res 116:105–115
Philandras CM, Nastos PT, Kapsomenakis IN, Repapis C (2015) Climatology of upper air temperature in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Atmos Res 152:29–42
Wang K-Y (2010) Profiles of the atmospheric temperature response to the Saharan dust outbreaks derived from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC and OMI AI. Atmos Res 96:110–121
Zerefos CS, Tourpali K, Zanis P, Eleftheratos K, Repapis C, Goodman A, Wuebbles D, Isaksen ISA, Luterbacher J (2014) Evidence for an earlier greenhouse cooling effect in the stratosphere before 1980 over the Northern hemisphere. Atmos Chem Phys 14(15):7705–7720
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and the National Center for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research for providing the upper air temperature data sets.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Philandras, C.M., Kapsomenakis, J., Nastos, P.T., Repapis, C., Zerefos, C.S. (2017). Climatology of Upper Air Temperature Over the Mediterranean. Trends and Variability. In: Karacostas, T., Bais, A., Nastos, P. (eds) Perspectives on Atmospheric Sciences. Springer Atmospheric Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-35095-0_81
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-35095-0_81
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-35094-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-35095-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)