Flocas, Helena A. (Laboratory of Meteorology, Department of Applied Physics, University of Athens, Greece)
The objective of this study is to diagnose and investigate comprehensively the dynamics of a case of cyclogenesis over the Aegean Sea within the context of the PV analysis. Of particular interest is to study and assess quantitatively the individual contribution at the low levels to the observed wind field by using a two dimensional PV inversion. The diagnostic study demonstated that at early stages the cyclogenesis is manifested by a large scale development at the upper levels over Adriatic Sea and Yugoslavia associated with an upper tropospheric PV anomaly. At later stages a smaller scale development was generated over Aegean Sea associated with an interior PV anomaly and a warm anomaly. On the basis of satellite evidence the interior PV anomaly is more likely generated by convection. It is demonstrated that the scale, the position and the strength of the involved anomalies contribute to the low level development, however the interior PV anomaly seems to constitute the most significant feature. It is also notable that there is no sign of amplification of the upper level flow due to the low level anomalies.