Atmospheric deserts

Matching Funds - Tirol

Disciplines

Geosciences (80%); Computer Sciences (10%); Mathematics (10%)

Keywords

Advected Convective Boundary Layer, Thunderstorm, Maximum Temperature, Trajectory, Machine Learning, Climatological Attribution

Abstract

When hot and dry air from the deserts of North Africa is pushed like a lid over the air near the ground in Europe as an "atmospheric desert," so much heat can accumulate underneath that heat waves occur. Atmospheric deserts have for example been partly responsible for the heat waves that plagued large swaths of Europe in the summer of 2022. Atmospheric deserts can also either suppress thunderstorms or make them particularly severe. During the catastrophic tornado in the Czech Republic on June 24, 2021, which killed 9 people, an atmospheric desert was located over the area. The research project is investigating how common such atmospheric deserts are over certain areas in Europe, whether they are becoming more frequent, and the details of how they contribute to heat waves and severe thunderstorms.