The ARMEX Project

OBJECTIVE

ARMEX aims at investigating relevance, characteristics and impacts of ARs in the MED and at identifying possible connections with extreme hydrometeorological events over Italy.

ARMEX addresses the following RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• How often ARs can be found over the western MED?

• How and how much are ARs connected to extreme hydrometeorological events over Italy?

• Which is the role of ARs in the mechanisms of heavy precipitation and floods?

• Do MED ARs have peculiar characteristics that make them different from those over the Pacific?

Thus ARMEX SPECIFIC GOALS are:

• develop AR detection algorithms exploiting reanalysis data and satellite observations;

• conduct a climatological analysis of AR frequency and intensity in the MED and assess their relationship with extreme hydrometeorological events over Italy;

• define the characteristics of ARs in the MED and disclose their impact in the mesoscale mechanisms of heavy precipitation, in particular concerning the interaction with the complex orography;

• reveal the hydrological impact of landfalling AR in several basins of different characteristics, representative of the complex topography of the Italian peninsula.