Chapter 3
Alboran Sea Area Climate and Weather
José María Sánchez-Laulhé, Agustí Jansa, and Carlos Jiménez
3.1 The Climate of the Alboran Area
The Alboran Sea is the westernmost sub-basin of the Mediterranean Sea. It extends
between Spain and North of Africa, along 35
N, with a zonal morphology: a
350-km long sea in the E–W direction and 140 km wide, that, at west, narrows
down to 14-km wide in the Strait of Gibraltar, surrounded by mountains fairly close
to the coast with uneven altitude.
The Mediterranean Sea is a marginal and semi-enclosed sea, with morphological
characteristics rather unique, located on the western side of a large continental area
and surrounded by Europe on the north, Africa on the south, and Asia on the east
(Fig. 3.1). From the climatic point of view, the Mediterranean basin is a unique
highly coupled system where complex interactions and feedbacks involving different components of the climate system, such as ocean, atmosphere, land, and biogeochemical processes, along with the effects of complex morphological features,
play a prominent role in modulating the climate of the region on a range of spatial
and temporal scales (Ruti et al. 2016).
The Alboran Sea is part of a wider area located between zones with very different
sunshine duration (Fig. 3.2), and with strong albedo differences: the high albedo arid
zone of the North African deserts to the south and the low albedo moist temperate
zone of midlatitude to the north (Bolle 2003).
The Alboran Sea is included in a transition zone between midlatitudes and
tropical meteorological regimes, exposed to some of the most relevant mechanisms
acting upon the global climate system (e.g., Corte-Real et al. 1995; Ribera et al.
J. M. Sánchez-Laulhé (*) · C. Jiménez
Agencia Estatal de Meteorología, Centro Meteorológico de Málaga, Málaga, Spain
e-mail: jsanchezlaulheo@aemet.es; cjimeneza@aemet.es
A. Jansa
Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. C. Báez et al. (eds.), Alboran Sea - Ecosystems and Marine Resources,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65516-7_3
31
Alboran Sea Area Climate and Weather
José María Sánchez-Laulhé, Agustí Jansa, and Carlos Jiménez
3.1 The Climate of the Alboran Area
The Alboran Sea is the westernmost sub-basin of the Mediterranean Sea. It extends
between Spain and North of Africa, along 35
N, with a zonal morphology: a
350-km long sea in the E–W direction and 140 km wide, that, at west, narrows
down to 14-km wide in the Strait of Gibraltar, surrounded by mountains fairly close
to the coast with uneven altitude.
The Mediterranean Sea is a marginal and semi-enclosed sea, with morphological
characteristics rather unique, located on the western side of a large continental area
and surrounded by Europe on the north, Africa on the south, and Asia on the east
(Fig. 3.1). From the climatic point of view, the Mediterranean basin is a unique
highly coupled system where complex interactions and feedbacks involving different components of the climate system, such as ocean, atmosphere, land, and biogeochemical processes, along with the effects of complex morphological features,
play a prominent role in modulating the climate of the region on a range of spatial
and temporal scales (Ruti et al. 2016).
The Alboran Sea is part of a wider area located between zones with very different
sunshine duration (Fig. 3.2), and with strong albedo differences: the high albedo arid
zone of the North African deserts to the south and the low albedo moist temperate
zone of midlatitude to the north (Bolle 2003).
The Alboran Sea is included in a transition zone between midlatitudes and
tropical meteorological regimes, exposed to some of the most relevant mechanisms
acting upon the global climate system (e.g., Corte-Real et al. 1995; Ribera et al.
J. M. Sánchez-Laulhé (*) · C. Jiménez
Agencia Estatal de Meteorología, Centro Meteorológico de Málaga, Málaga, Spain
e-mail: jsanchezlaulheo@aemet.es; cjimeneza@aemet.es
A. Jansa
Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. C. Báez et al. (eds.), Alboran Sea - Ecosystems and Marine Resources,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65516-7_3
31