CLOUD CHARACTERISTICS OBSERVED AT THE ENEA STATION OF LAMPEDUSA, CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN

G. Pace¹, F. Anello², V. Ciardini¹, I. D’Elia³, L. De Silvestri¹, T. Di Iorio¹, A. di Sarra⁴, P. Grigioni¹, A. Iaccarino¹, D. Meloni¹, F. Monteleone², S. Piacentino², D. Sferlazzo⁵

¹ENEA Casaccia, ²ENEA Palermo, ³ENEA Roma Headquarter, ⁴ENEA Frascati, ⁵ENEA Lampedusa

Since January 2024, at the ENEA Station for Climate Observations of Lampedusa (35.52°N, 12.63°E, 45 m a.s.l.), the suite of cloud remote sensing observations, part of the National Facilities of the Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure, i.e. ACTRIS, has been operational, enhancing the observational capabilities of the station established in the late 1990s. The Station of Lampedusa already hosts long-term measurements of meteorological parameters, greenhouse gases, aerosols, and radiation at different wavelengths (https://www.lampedusa.enea.it/).

These cloud observations (including Doppler cloud radar, ceilometer, microwave radiometer, disdrometer, and rain gauge) are processed by the Centre for Cloud Remote Sensing (CCRES) of ACTRIS and disseminated through the ACTRIS Cloudnet data portal.

This study presents and discusses the first two years of measurements collected at Lampedusa. Due to its small size (20.2 km²), simple and low orography (maximum elevation ~130 m), and its distance from the mainland (~130 km from the African coast and 210 km from Sicily), the island constitutes an excellent site for investigating cloud properties and precipitation over the open sea.

The dataset, representative of a wide sector of the central Mediterranean, is analyzed in terms of both monthly variability and selected cases of particular relevance.