Numerical Modelling of Mediterranean Cyclones

In this article results of climatological considerations with respect to daily high precipitation amount in the Alps and northern Italy and corresponding synoptic weather situations have been shown. After a short description of the numerical atmospheric simulation model COSMO, results of model runs performed on the super computer HP XC4000 of the SSC have been shown. The COSMO model is a limited-area numerical weather forecast model, which has been designed for the simulation of meteorological phenomena on the meso-scale. Its basic version has been developed mainly at the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD). Since a few years the model development is continued by the COnsortium for Small-scale MOdelling (COSMO), a group of several national weather services in Europe, which use the COSMO model as operational weather forecast model ( http://www.cosmo-model.org ). The model simulations discussed should be considered as a basis for further model calculations to estimate the influence of turbulent sensible and latent heat flux near the sea surface, of roughness of the sea surface, and of the orography of the Iberian Peninsula and the Alps, respectively, on the formation of the Mediterranean cyclones as well as the precipitation patterns. A further model simulation with a higher spatial and temporal numerical resolution will be performed to allow to replace the parameterization of deep convection by the direct numerical simulation of this process. The project is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the research unit PANDOWAE (FOR896). We would like to thank the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) for support of the COSMO model and for providing GME data.