Climate, Climate Variability and Impacts in the Mediterranean Area: An Overview
33
both in space to the whole Mediterranean basin and in time over ten years.
A specific program was set up to validate the information derived from the
measurements in space with quantities directly observed at the ground. These
necessarily spotty data served the validation of the few available high resolution
satellite data. These in turn were aggregated to the areas sizes resolved by
meteorological satellites to transfer the validation on to these daily (NOAA
satellites) and hourly data sets of medium spatial resolution from METEOSA T.
4.6 The Role of the Mediterranean Sea
It would be incomplete not to refer to the overriding role of the Mediterranean Sea
for the European-African Mediterranean climate and vegetation. Because of this
enclosed sea the area of Mediterranean climate is so extended in this region and not,
as on other continents, restricted to a narrow coastal strip. The importance of the sea
is present in almost all areas of the Mediterranean basin. At the larger scale the sea
gains more solar energy than it loses as infrared radiation to space. It is surrounded
in almost all directions by areas where the net radiative t1ux is negative (Fig. 7). The
only exception is a narrow strip to the West that connects the Mediterranean Sea
with the sub-tropical North Atlantic Ocean. Because of this positive radiation budget
Fig. 7. Net radiation flux in W m-~ at the top of the atmosphere averaged over five years after GraBl
(1995)
33
both in space to the whole Mediterranean basin and in time over ten years.
A specific program was set up to validate the information derived from the
measurements in space with quantities directly observed at the ground. These
necessarily spotty data served the validation of the few available high resolution
satellite data. These in turn were aggregated to the areas sizes resolved by
meteorological satellites to transfer the validation on to these daily (NOAA
satellites) and hourly data sets of medium spatial resolution from METEOSA T.
4.6 The Role of the Mediterranean Sea
It would be incomplete not to refer to the overriding role of the Mediterranean Sea
for the European-African Mediterranean climate and vegetation. Because of this
enclosed sea the area of Mediterranean climate is so extended in this region and not,
as on other continents, restricted to a narrow coastal strip. The importance of the sea
is present in almost all areas of the Mediterranean basin. At the larger scale the sea
gains more solar energy than it loses as infrared radiation to space. It is surrounded
in almost all directions by areas where the net radiative t1ux is negative (Fig. 7). The
only exception is a narrow strip to the West that connects the Mediterranean Sea
with the sub-tropical North Atlantic Ocean. Because of this positive radiation budget
Fig. 7. Net radiation flux in W m-~ at the top of the atmosphere averaged over five years after GraBl
(1995)