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

In this paper we investigate the spatial patterns and features of meteorological droughts in Europe using concepts and methods derived from complexnetwork theory. Using event synchronization analysis, we uncover robust meteorological drought continental networks based on the co-occurrence ofthese events at different locations within a season from 1981 to 2020 and compare the results for four accumulation periods of rainfall. Eachcontinental network is then further examined to unveil regional clusters which are characterized in terms of droughts' geographical propagation andsource-sink systems. While introducing new methodologies in general climate network reconstruction from raw data, our approach brings out keyaspects concerning drought spatial dynamics, which could potentially support droughts' forecast.