In Fall of 2021 a cyclone now known as Medicane Apollo struck countries in the Mediterranean coast, resulting in the deaths of 7 people and in damages that cost $245 million. As a result scientists in Italy made this scientific report about this rare interaction between 2 meteorological phenomena in the Ionian Sea and its biogeochemical impacts on the ocean. The unusual impact of this interaction on the ocean is the basis for the belief that meteorological observation systems should be improved to the extent that its use will mitigate weather-related damage in the future. I personally interpret this paper as a justification for the improvement of weather observation systems.
The authors of A case study of impacts of an extreme weather system on the Mediterranean Sea circulation features: Medicane Apollo (2021) are Milena Menna, Ricardo Martellucci, Marco Reale, Gianpiero Cossarini, Stefan’s Salon, Guilin Notarstefano, Elena Mauri, Pierre-Marie Poulain, Antonella Galló, and Cosimo Solidoro. All of the authors reside in Italy and write for the Oceanographic Section of the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics. The 1st purpose of this scientific report is to document the bio geochemical impacts of Medicane Apollo and a cyclonic gyre interacting at the western Ionian Sea and the pre-existing conditions that would cause this to occur. The authors’ stance on this is that this rare phenomenon warrants the need to develop better observational systems in order to better mitigate the damage caused by the weather in the future. The 2nd purpose is to use this report as a way to galvanize the scientific community and policymakers to get together and support the advancement to observational systems that utilize multiple means of observation such as the Argo program.
The audience of this scientific report is the scientific community. Specifically, scientists that would be interested in the rare interaction between an atmospheric cyclone and a cyclonic gyre and the effects it would have on the Ionian Sea. The rest of the audience consists of meteorologists that work at organizations like the National Weather Service, American Meteorological Society, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and the Italian Meteorological Service. The demographic of the audience ties back into the purpose of the article as in their Discussion section they highlight the limitations of using satélite data to observe the weather.
The main argument of this scientific report is that there should be improvement to the current observational systems in order to better prepare for future weather events. This can first be seen in the Abstract of this paper where it states that the fact that this Medicane behaved differently from previous cyclones support the idea that there is a need for an observational system that can produce more accurate weather models. This is then elaborated on in the Discussion section, where it highlights several flaws with the use of satellite data, some being that only provide information only at sea surface and some weather like heavy rainfall can contaminate satellite readings. And finally after discussing how they got their data by combining satellite data and model products, they end this section by expressing their desire for scientists in their community and lawmakers to come together and heavily advocate for increasing the capability and accuracy of future atmospheric forecasts.
With this, I believe I have proven my personal belief that this scientific report was made by these authors in order to inspire the creation of better observational models that would mitigate the harm by future weather disasters similar to Medicane Apollo back in Fall of 2021.
