Radar Study of Clouds and Rains in Crimea

摘要

The Crimean Autonomous Republic (further on — the Crimea) is situated on the Crimean peninsula in the southern part of Ukraine. Its geographic coordinates are 44°36 – 46° 10 northern latitude and 32° 30 – 36° 45 eastern longitude.The Crimean peninsula is not very large. Its area is about 26 000 sq. km. The distance from the northernmost point (the Perekop) to the southernmost one (the Sarych Cape) equals 195 km; from the westernmost point (the Tarkhankut Cape) to the easternmost point of the Kerch peninsula — 325 km.The Crimea is washed by the warm waters of the Black Sea from the west and from the south, by the Azov Sea and the shallow salty bay of Sivash — from the north-east. The bay of Sivash is separated from the Azov Sea by the Arabat spit, which is 113 km long.By the nature of its orography, the Crimean peninsula can be separated into two parts. The larger one is the steppe Crimea, which is a plain with the absolute heights of 50–150 m above the sea level. The southernmost part of the Crimea is occupied by the Crimean mountains which form three parallel ranges: the Outer Range (200–300 m), the Inner Range (600–750 m) and the Main Range (1200–1500 m).The climate of the Crimea is influenced, alongside with the radiation factors and the circulation peculiarities, by the Back Sea and the Azov Sea, as well as the Crimean mountains. The climate of the Southern Coast of the Crimea (the SCC) is influenced not so much by the height of the Crimean mountains (they are comparatively low, the highest point — the Roman-Kosh mountain — being 1545 m) as by their general orientation from west to east, parallel to the southern coast. That is why the southern slopes of the mountains and the SCC form the region which is totally different from the middle zone of Ukraine, while the northern Crimea can be said to be an extension of the steppes of southern Ukraine.There are three main climatic regions in the Crimea: 1 — the steppe, 2 — the mountain, 3 — the coast.