Mobile version

Assessing storm impacts on the Mediterranean coasts

Image of the Month - October 2020

If the highest waves ever measured were in the North Atlantic during a winter storm (20 m, see Phenomenal seas), and if the Southern Ocean storms are proverbial, the Mediterranean Sea is not without its rages, while having densely inhabited coasts. Assessing coastal impacts of storms is thus of foremost importance in the region – especially when they can be combined with flash floods, and the wrong wind direction (as shown in Flash flood at the Têt river mouth ).

The storm Gloria hit the North-West basin of the Mediterranean Sea in January 2020. It was one of the most intense such event during the last decade, with unusual aspects. It caused severe damages on the Mediterranean coasts of Spain, and part of France’s ones, too. Altimetry does not enable to monitor such an event hourly close to the coasts. However, the data the different satellites provides can be assimilated into wave models in advance to forecast, or after the event to better understand and assess the damages. Validating the results of a model without assimilation is also interesting, since the validation data and the model are quite independent then.

In the Ebro Delta, the storm surge is modelized over 40 cm, in a region which is low-lying and was thus flooded, while in Balearic Islands there was no storm surge impact. However, the Eastern coast of Mallorca was hit by high waves topping over the high cliffs (over 15 mthat caused significant damage to coastal assets. Such information, and also a look into historical records can help in planning to mitigate such extreme events.
With Swot, altimetry will get closer to the coasts at high resolution, thus improving the altimetry data resolution in such areas, and also in the open ocean. Modelling will assimilate those to provide with forecasts and impact maps. 

See also:

Reference:

  • Angel Amores, Marta Marcos, Diego S. Carrió, and Lluís Gómez-Pujol, 2020: Coastal impacts of Storm Gloria (January 2020) over the north-western Mediterranean, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 1955–1968, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-1955-2020
EnglishFrançais
Rss feedsContactPartnersFAQLexiconLegal noticePersonal Data Protection PolicyMobile
You must enable cookies in your browser preferences to save the modifications
You are using an older version of Internet Explorer, please update to take full advantage of Aviso+ features

Customize the home page

View all widgets
Reduce display
Public profile
User profile

Select/Deselect widgets

Discover AVISO+

Customizable home, reading tools, products search guide, etc.. Discover step by step the features of the new site AVISO+.

Customizable homepage

This home page is composed of blocks called "widgets".

Rearrange the blocks with a "Click & Drop".

Hide a widget with the cross at the top right. Reset or add a widget with the "wrench" icon. The "User" and "Public" profiles offer a predefined organization.

All the modifications are automatically saved as cookies on your machine so as to enable you to have your own specific AVISO+.

Reading tools

Ease your reading by choosing the page background colour (black/white) and/or by modifying the font size.

Browsing menu and breadcrum trail

To ease your browsing through AVISO+, you can use at any time the main banner items with the interactive submenus or use the browsing menu on the left side of the screen (it is open by default). For more readiness of the page contents, you can fold and unfold the browsing menu by clicking on the tab. At any time you can know where you are thanks to the browsing menu or the breadcrum at the top of the page.

Products search guide

The first submenu of the "Data" banner item leads you to a new search form enabling you to find quickier the product that suits your needs. The list of results is updated according to your selection criteria.

AVISO+ Multimedia

The first submenu of the "Multimedia" banner item leads you to AVISO+ collections of images and videos linked to altimetry and its applications. Have a nice visit!