Dust-Medicane Interaction: Tropical-Like Cyclone on November 7th, 2014

Mineral dust aerosols, soil particles suspended in the atmosphere, play a vital role in climate and can alter weather systems. Those particles have both direct (dust-radiation effect) and indirect (dust-microphysical effect) impacts on the energy budget. This study aims to investigate the dust impact on tropical-like cyclones over the Mediterranean Basin. Tropical-like cyclones (TLCs) called Medicanes (MEDIterranean hurriCANE) are rare cases observed in the Mediterranean Sea. On average, one TLC case is caught by satellite images in the Mediterranean basin. Moreover, tropical cyclone (TC) activity over Atlantic region peaks during summer and early fall while TLCs occur in September, October and November. There are many studies examining the relation between Saharan dust and TC development over Atlantic. TC's environmental conditions could be influenced by dust. An environment with weaker vertical wind shear is more favorable to TC development. Similar to TCs, TLCs require minimal wind shear and abundant amount of moisture and vorticity. However, there are not many studies related to dust impact on medicanes. This study tries to find out if dust transport could effect medicane formation and development. One of the objectives of the study is to analyze the medicane and dust transport by satellite data. For this purpose, Medicane case on 7th of November, 2014 was chosen. The TLC formed early on November 7th, hit eastern Sicily. It was dissipated on 8th of November. A strong low level jet-stream blew warm air masses from the Sahara desert towards the Mediterranean. Another objective is to study the dust-medicane interaction over Mediterranean Sea in 2014 using a numerical model. The case simulated with WRF will enlighten the interaction between dust and TLC activity. Furthermore, more studies in different TLC cases and simulations with different physics options will give insight into the interaction.