MEDICANES: database and environmental parameters

Tropical-like cyclones occasionally develop over the Mediterranean Sea, sometimes attaining hurricane intensity and threatening the islands and coastal regions. These storms, recently called medicanes (MEDIterranean HurriCANES), operate on the thermodynamic disequilibrium between the sea and the atmosphere and in this respect, as well as in their visual appearance in satellite images, are much like tropical cyclones. As meteorological observations in maritime areas are scarce, satellite images become a crucial source of information to attempt, for the first time, to build a systematic database of events.