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Ann. Geophys., 26, 1851-1864, 2008
www.ann-geophys.net/26/1851/2008/
© European Geosciences Union 2008
Contemporary ground-based and satellite precipitating system characterization for desertification studies in Southern Italy
M. Casazza1,2, F. Prodi3, F. Torricella3, C. Caracciolo4, E. Santi1, and A. Piano1
1Dipartimento di Fisica Generale "A. Avogadro", Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy
2Nubila S.A.S., Bologna, Italy
3Consiglio Nazionale Ricerche, Istituto per le Scienze dell'Atmosfera e del Clima, Bologna, Italy
4Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
Abstract. During the research project RIADE (Ricerca Integrata per l'Applicazione di
tecnologie e processi innovativi per la lotta alla DEsertificazione),
devoted to the study on the potential risk of desertification in Southern
Italy, a particular attention has been paid also to the analysis of
precipitations from three surface stations (Licata, Sicily; Rotondella,
Basilicata; Surigheddu, Sardinia) in order to improve the knowledge derived
from the most modern climatological studies related to this subject. The
point of view adopted is to better define the precipitation microphysical
properties (in particular, the Drop Size Distribution, DSD, and its
moments), which are deeply related to the cloud system that generates the
precipitation events. In particular we have used a newly introduced
Convective Stratiform discrimination technique, that allowed us to observe a
prevalence of events, concentrated along Winter (Wi) season, of different
microphysical nature. In fact the prevailing Stratiform nature is related to
Licata station, while for Surigheddu and for Rotondella the nature is mainly
Convective. This distinction is related to the presence of drops of bigger
dimensions and more intense precipitations in the latter case, while, in the
former case, a prevalence of smaller drops and a less intense precipitation
is recorded. This confirms the distinctive belonging to three different
climatic regions, as indicated in the study by Brunetti et al. (2006). Our
findings are important in the framework of desertification studies, because
the cause of desertification can be related either to fertile soils removal
(in the case of Convective events) or to lack of precipitated water (in the
case of Stratiform events). We have also analysed a sub-set of ten events,
with contemporary presence of data from VIS/IR channels of METEOSAT-7, SSM/I
data from F13 and MODIS data from Terra platform. This has been done both to
confirm the findings of PLUDIX data analysis (which is, in fact, confirmed)
and to show the capability of PLUDIX to detect the fast local variations
related to the temporal evolution of more extended systems. The potentiality
of PLUDIX as a real-time detector of precipitation events, together with the
development of an adequate number of algorithms, that give a complete
microphysical description of the observed events, finally, opens the way for
developing a new Present Weather Sensor.
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