Due to the growing awareness of potential threats affecting coastal cities, a thorough knowledge of all the factors causing an increase in sea level is demanded in order to provide accurate forecasting of coastal flooding, proper designing of the coastal defences and for implementing adequate countermeasures. In the present study we hypothesize that with the correct selection of the methods we will be able to characterise low-frequency sea level oscillations, namely subinertial oscillations, in the Mediterranean Sea. Several methods were applied − wavelet analysis, spectral analysis, moving-periodogram analysis and rotary spectral analysis − to the observations of a particular storm event in the Adriatic Sea and the long-term tide gauge measurements available for the rest of the Mediterranean basin. With the combination of different processing techniques to measured data the preliminary results provide the period of subinertial oscillation, an information on the locations where the signal was evidenced as well as the identification of the events in which these oscillations exhibit special intensity. This sets the ground for a further investigation of signal propagation throughout the Mediterranean basin, as well as for characterisation of the mechanisms triggering the process, also in the framework of a climate change perspective.
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