Exploring the Signature of the Apollo Medicane in the Central Mediterranean Sea Through Multi-source Data Analysis: Satellites, Radar HF, Marine Buoys, and Seismic Data in October 2021

In the last decades, the frequency of extreme weather and marine
events has drastically increased. During the last week of October 2021 an intense
Mediterranean hurricane (Medicane), named Apollo, affected many countries on
the Mediterranean coasts. Eight people died as a consequence of the floodings
from the cyclone in the countries of Tunisia, Algeria, Malta, and Italy. A preliminary
search for possible signatures of the Apollo Medicane by meteorological
satellite, radar HF, marine buoy, and seismic data is performed. This was done in a
framework of an international collaboration between Italian and Maltese partners
for the monitoring of the sea state in scenarios of climate change. The experimental
results confirm, at this preliminary stage, the possibility and the usefulness of
jointly looking at such phenomena with multiple aims of retrieving a more robust
characterization, having a backup alternative in case a primary monitoring network
gets failure, and pathing the way to heuristic and data-driven analytical and
predictive approaches to Medicanes issues.