RAINFALL DISTRIBUTION OVER CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN ISRAEL INDUCED BY LARGE-SCALE MOISTURE FLUX

A map of annual rainfall in Israel was obtained from the real-time cal culation of the net condensation in large-scale moisture transport thr ough the eastern Mediterranean, sea surface evaporation, and orographi c condensation above the Judean mountain range. The averaged rainfall efficiency of condensation over the rainy season is assumed to be a fu nction of the vertically and time-averaged temperature. The calculated rainfall map correlates well with statistical annual rainfall distrib ution, correlation coefficient 0.9, and allows the effect of the three sources of precipitation mentioned above to be estimated. The condens ation within large-scale moisture transport, the main source of precip itation in the Israel region, yields approximately two-thirds of the b ulk rainfall in the Mediterranean Sea shore region. The rest results f rom the contribution of the sea surface evaporation. Orographic conden sation starts near the Mediterranean Sea shore and increases in the di rection of the Judean mountains, where its contribution to rainfall is approximately equal to the contribution of the condensation within th e large-scale moisture flux.