Recent results on Tropical-like cyclones in the Mediterranean Sea

Cyclones with characteristics similar to tropical cyclones, although smaller in size, are sometimes observed in the Mediterranean Sea. Several studies have analyzed their genesis, evolution, and decay, shedding some light on the mechanisms responsible for their development. However, some of these cyclones were not properly reproduced in terms of track and intensity by neither real-time simulations nor hindcasts, emphasizing the delicate role of small-scale upper level features in the development of these cyclones. Also, the cyclone intensity is very sensitive to the intense fluxes between the ocean and atmosphere in the high-wind core. The importance to reproduce properly the air-sea interaction has been recently investigated by means of a coupled atmosphere-wave-ocean model (COAWST), which exchanges consistently the sea surface fluxes between the atmospheric model (WRF) and the ocean circulation model (ROMS), including also the effect of waves (SWAN). Finally, considering the importance of sea spray droplets in the air-sea exchange, an integrated numerical study has been undertaken, using the wave model SWAN two-way coupled with WRF-CHEM (the WRF model integrated with the chemistry package). A new sea spray generation function under severe wind condition is proposed in WRF-CHEM, in particular in the GOCART aerosol module, which explicitly considers the emission and transport of sea spray aerosol.