Time clustering of wave storms in the Mediterranean Sea

Besio, Giovanni; Briganti, Riccardo; Romano, Alessandro; Mentaschi, Lorenzo; De Girolamo, Paolo

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-17-505-2017

Articles | Volume 17, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-17-505-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-17-505-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 3

Research article

|

27 Mar 2017

Research article |

| 27 Mar 2017

Time clustering of wave storms in the Mediterranean Sea

Giovanni Besio, Riccardo Briganti, Alessandro Romano, Lorenzo Mentaschi, and Paolo De Girolamo

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Final revised paper (published on 27 Mar 2017)
Preprint (discussion started on 03 Nov 2016)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

SC1: 'Caveat', Francesco Serinaldi, 03 Nov 2016
RC1: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #1, 07 Nov 2016
- AC5: 'Reply to reviewer #1', Giovanni Besio, 06 Feb 2017
SC2: 'RC2: Review', Thomas Wahl, 07 Dec 2016
RC2: 'SC again as RC', Thomas Wahl, 08 Dec 2016
- AC6: 'Reply to reviewer #2', Giovanni Besio, 06 Feb 2017
SC3: 'additional remarks', Francesco Serinaldi, 08 Dec 2016
- AC4: 'Reply to Dr. Serinaldi', Giovanni Besio, 06 Feb 2017
AC1: 'Reply to reviewer #1', Giovanni Besio, 06 Feb 2017
AC2: 'Reply to reviewer #2', Giovanni Besio, 06 Feb 2017
AC3: 'Reply to Dr. Serinaldi', Giovanni Besio, 06 Feb 2017

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by Editor and Referees) (09 Feb 2017) by Ira Didenkulova

AR by Giovanni Besio on behalf of the Authors (09 Feb 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (10 Feb 2017) by Ira Didenkulova

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (19 Feb 2017)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The paper has been substantially revised. However, it still needs a further round of review. The main point is the following. Since the authors have shown that the only significant clustering behavior is observed for tau<50 days, I don't understand why the figures still show the value of alpha for tau>50 days.
At pag. 6 line 25, the text "For tau > 50 days the variability is lower and all the curves show slopes of similar value, with alpha ≃ 1.1−1.2 on average. Note that in figures 5-6 and in all the figures showing AF curves, the slopes
alpha = 0.2 and alpha = 1.15 are indicated for reference" has to be rewritten or elminated because it does not make sense any comment about clustering or alpha slope above 50 days.
The sentence at page 6 line 30 "The second, steeper, slope is observed generally between 50 and 100 days" is misleading because it was shown that above 50 days there is an apparent slope due to the periodicity and not to real intrinsic clusering effects.
Even the discussed transition between two slopes has not to be done, becasue the only timescale range for which we could discuss about slope is the range below 50 days, because above 50 days there is an apparent slope due to the periodicity.
Probably a better structure of the paper is that first the authors show the results of the AF on the real data, but without any discussion about the slopes, then they perform the cyclic Poisson simulation, and on the base of the comparison derive that the only significant time scale range really related with clustering is that below 50 days.
Practically, any sentence that refers to the slope for tau>50 days has to be eliminated or re-written, because the real clusering is only below 50 days and not above.
For instance, again, at page 16 the sentence "the other hand summer shows the minimum wind intensity and storms are less frequent. Interestingly, although the exponent
for tau > 50 days is larger than unity" is misleading because it was shown that for tau>50 the slope is only an effect of the periodicity and does not suggest any intrinsic dynamics related with clustering.
Practically, the author have to better restructure the paper strengthening their results ONLY for tau<50 days, otherwise they risk to convey misleading information.

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ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by Editor and Referees) (28 Feb 2017) by Ira Didenkulova

AR by Giovanni Besio on behalf of the Authors (01 Mar 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (02 Mar 2017) by Ira Didenkulova

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (03 Mar 2017)

ED: Publish as is (03 Mar 2017) by Ira Didenkulova

AR by Giovanni Besio on behalf of the Authors (05 Mar 2017) Manuscript

Short summary

Results of 36-years of hindcast in the Mediterranean Sea are analysed to detect time clustering of wave storms using the Allan factor. The analysis reveals that some areas of the basin are characterized by storm clustering for timescales t < 50 days, while seasonality is dominant at large scales. The findings highlight a deviation from the Poisson distribution in some sub-basins of the Mediterranean Sea. Implications for coastal erosion/flooding need to be studied further.