MEDICANE ATLAS

A REPOSITORY FOR MEDITERRANEAN CYCLONES

The Medicane ATLAS is a comprehensive repository gathering observations of Mediterranean hurricanes — medicanes — from multiple sources including satellites, in-situ measurements, and model outputs. It offers an integrated view of storm activity across the Mediterranean Sea, combining high-resolution datasets and added-value products developed by project partners.

What the Atlas Includes

  • Satellite and model observations of Medicane events
  • Added-value products developed within the project (e.g., processed storm tracks, composite datasets)
  • Cross-referenced data per storm (e.g., Trixie, Numa, Ianos, Apollo, Blas, Daniel)
  • Progressive updates as new data and storms are added

    • First version: based on initial data collection.
    Final version: will include all project results and partner-contributed products.

    Building the Medicane Atlas

    The Atlas is constructed following the same methodology as the ESA MAXSS project on tropical and extratropical cyclones.

    The general scheme for building the Atlas consists of the following steps:
  • Select reference Medicane events (2000–2023)
  • Match storm tracks with relevant datasets using spatial and temporal criteria
  • Extract and collocate data along each track
  • Store observations in standardized NetCDF format

    • Each storm entry in the Atlas includes:
  • Track and intensity information
  • Observations from multiple sensors
  • Derived parameters such as wind speed, precipitation, and temperature

    • Medicane Atlas processing workflow General workflow for building the Medicane Atlas (placeholder image).

    Input Datasets

    The Medicane Atlas integrates a wide range of Earth Observation datasets from organizations such as ESA, EUMETSAT, NOAA, and NASA.

    EXAMPLE OF AVAILABLE DATA

    Variable Category Product / Instrument Mission / Source Data Type
    Surface Wind L2B / ASCAT MetOp-A, -B, -C (OSI SAF) Climatology
    L2B / Scatterometer Oceansat-2, HY-2B/C/D, etc. Climatology
    Sea Surface Salinity CCI SSS Multimission L4 (ESA CCI) Climatology
    Sea Surface Temperature CMEMS REP L3S Multisensor (CMEMS) Climatology
    CCI/C3S SST L4 Global Analysis (ESA CCI) Climatology
    Precipitation CDR-CMORPH NOAA Climatology
    P-IN-PMW-SEVIRI H-SAF Case Studies
    IMERG NASA/GSFC Climatology
    MSWEP GloH20 Climatology
    Sea Surface Height CMEMS REP L3 SLA CMEMS Climatology
    Sea Wave Height CCI Sea State L3 Altimetry (ESA CCI) Climatology
    Atmosphere (Cloud, Convection) DEEPSTORM (CTH, IWP) CNRS/LMD Case Studies
    AMSU/MHS, ATMS, SSM/I, GMI, AMSR2 NOAA, NASA, EUMETSAT Climatology & Cases
    Rapid Scan SEVIRI MSG (EUMETSAT) Case Studies

    A full list of datasets is available in the repository data catalog.

    Data Extraction for Storm Tracks

    For a core selection of the datasets above, we have extracted observations that match Medicane tracks in time and space using the Felyx software. The collocation parameters vary by dataset to capture the relevant physical processes.

    EXAMPLE EXTRACTION PARAMETERS:
    • L2B Scatterometer Data: Collocated within a 500 km radius and a ±2 hour time window around each storm position.

    Repository Structure

    Data files are organized by category (e.g., atmosphere, ocean surface, climatology) and include both raw and processed datasets.

    Medicane Atlas processing workflow
    Where:
  • data/ — contains the collected datasets:
    • --> cases/ — datasets for specific cases
    --> climatology/ — datasets covering the entire period of interest, without event-specific selection
  • storm-atlas/ — includes subsets of the collected data:
    • --> cases/ — data subsets corresponding to individual cases --> storm/ — storm climatology data (Flaounas et al. (2023))
  • tracks/ — contains both case-specific storm tracks and climatological storm tracks (Flaounas et al. (2023)), all converted to Parquet format

    • Access

    Currently, project partners only can access the data via secure FTP. The final version will be free available.

    For any questions regarding data access or the project, please contact the project team.