Exploring meteorological droughts' spatial patterns across Europe through complex network theory

Giaquinto, Domenico; Marzocchi, Warner; Kurths, Jürgen

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-30-167-2023

Articles | Volume 30, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-30-167-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-30-167-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 30, issue 2

Research article

|

15 Jun 2023

Research article |

| 15 Jun 2023

Exploring meteorological droughts' spatial patterns across Europe through complex network theory

Domenico Giaquinto, Warner Marzocchi, and Jürgen Kurths

Data sets

EDO Standardized Precipitation Index, 3-month accumulation period (SPI-3), blended and interpolated (version 1.2.0) European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) http://data.europa.eu/89h/0ae4cbf0-55f1-4aee-b1ae-a5317b264072

EDO Standardized Precipitation Index, 6-month accumulation period (SPI-6), blended and interpolated (version 1.2.0) European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) http://data.europa.eu/89h/566c45e3-6372-4ee1-939a-145709b54102

EDO Standardized Precipitation Index, 9-month accumulation period (SPI-9), blended and interpolated (version 1.2.0) European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) http://data.europa.eu/89h/fe44b1d1-ea3a-4519-92f1-af264b34a7b8

EDO Standardized Precipitation Index, 12-month accumulation period (SPI-12), blended and interpolated (version 1.2.0) European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) http://data.europa.eu/89h/4d64a2d4-d245-4a2e-bc97-197c8146f1d1

Short summary

Despite being among the most severe climate extremes, it is still challenging to assess droughts’ features for specific regions. In this paper we study meteorological droughts in Europe using concepts derived from climate network theory. By exploring the synchronization in droughts occurrences across the continent we unveil regional clusters which are individually examined to identify droughts’ geographical propagation and source–sink systems, which could potentially support droughts’ forecast.