1. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-20031 Climatology of Mesoscale Alpine Phenomena University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics Reinhold Steinacker, Christoph Lotteraner Department of Meteorology and Geophysics University of Vienna, Austria Motivation VERACLIM Some selected results Conclusion

2. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-20032 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics Motivation: Much of the conventional climatological work (long term climatographies) so far have been using 1D (time series analysis) and/or large scale/meso alpha scale 3D/4D (space-time analysis; reanalysis) Mesoscale climatographies were mostly restricted to national or regional boundaries Some of intense climate phenomena (extreme events especially over complex terrain) are on meso beta or even meso gamma scale!

3. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-20033 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics Example: 3 National Weather Services (AT,CH.SI) monthly precipitation CH AT SI

4. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-20034 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics Example: Berliner Wetterkarte Monthly mean sea level pressure December 2001 Source: Met. Inst. FU Berlin

5. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-20035 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics Example: ERA40; December 2001 Monthly mean sea level pressure 850 hPa Source: ECMWF; www.ecmwf

6. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-20036 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics VERACLIM A project sponsored by the Austrian Science Foundation to create a mesoscale (meso beta; 20, 10 km horiz. res.) analysis of the Alpine Atmosphere for the last 30 years. Data: GTS-type, 3-hourly Method: Variational (spline), including downscaling and CQC Primary variables: Theta, Theta-E, msl-pressure, sfc-wind Secondary variables: precipitation, snow depth, cloud cover Derived variables: p-tendency, stream-lines, melting level, CCL, (moisture-flux-) divergence,... 1 parameter: 30(yr)*365(d)*8(3-hr)~87.600 fields á 2.400/9600 GP →10**8/10**9 GP

7. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-20037 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics

8. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-20038 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics

9. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-20039 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics

10. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-200310 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics

11. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-200311 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics

12. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-200312 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics

13. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-200313 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics

14. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-200314 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics

15. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-200315 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics

16. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-200316 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics Conclusion and outlook Until a mesoscale reanalysis system (4D-VAR) becomes available on a scale, resolving the Alpine topography realistically, VERACLIM represents a good basis for establishing high resolution (concerning time and space) fields for climatological work Besides gridded fields also quality controlled data (biases, gross errors) are being determined Evaluation will concentrate upon short duration, mesoscale phenomena around the Alps A „reanalysis“ will be carried out with the new 4D VERA system, which is in the pre-operational phase, including a multivariate approach

17. Reinhold SteinackerICAM-MAP-200317 University of Vienna Department of Meteorology and Geophysics F I F N I T H E E N D N D E