Classification and analysis of sea-effect snowbands for Danube Sea area in Black Sea

In this study, for the Danube Sea Area (Danube Region—western part of the Black Sea), the structure of the sea effect snow (SES) bands, meteorological conditions in which SES bands occurred, and SES band types are analysed for the period 2009–2018. In the 10-year period, snowy times were determined using aviation reports published by four airports within the borders of the Marmara Region. SES events and SES bands were determined by examining the several satellite images (Channel 9-IR, Natural Colour-RGB, Airmass-RGB, Channel 6-VW) obtained from the Spinning-Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) device on MSG-2 (Meteosat-9) and MSG-3 (Meteosat-10) satellites. The Danube Region is divided into six sub-regions. Five different types of SES bands were analysed separately for each sub-region. Some meteorological conditions that are known to play an important role in the formation of SES bands (presence, thickness and level of the inversion layer; wind structure in the upper levels over the sea; sea surface temperature—SST) were analysed for the snowy times with sea-effect. According to the preliminary results; a total of 186 days were found to be snowy, 75 days of these snowy days occurred with sea-effect, and SES bands were seen in 8 days but did not cause snowfall in the Marmara Region. Type-2 (T-2) band was the most common band type (85%) over the Danube Region. The inversion layer(s) were observed between the level of 850–700 hPa in 52 days of 75 snowy days with sea effect. The majority of the direction of the upper-level winds (at 850 and 700 hPa) was found to be northern (North-N, Northwest-NW, Northeast-NE). The lowest average SST value (6.02°C) observed in the sub-region ‘A’ and the highest average SST value (8.66°C) was observed in the sub-region ‘F’.