HISTALP—historical instrumental climatological surface time series of the Greater Alpine Region

Abstract

Abstract:This paper describes the HISTALP database, consisting of monthly homogenised records of temperature, pressure, precipitation, sunshine and cloudiness for the 'Greater Alpine Region' (GAR,(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49). The longest temperature and air pressure series extend back to 1760, precipitation to 1800, cloudiness to the 1840s and sunshine to the 1880s. A systematic QC procedure has been applied to the series and a high number of inhomogeneities (more than 2500) and outliers (more than 5000) have been detected and removed. The 557 HISTALP series are kept in different data modes: original and homogenised, gap-filled and outlier corrected station mode series, grid-1 series (anomaly fields at 1°× 1°, lat × long) and Coarse Resolution Subregional (CRS) mean series according to an EOF-based regionalisation. The leading climate variability features within the GAR are discussed through selected examples and a concluding linear trend analysis for 100, 50 and 25-year subperiods for the four horizontal and two altitudinal CRSs. Among the key findings of the trend analysis is the parallel centennial decrease/increase of both temperature and air pressure in the 19th/20th century. The 20th century increase (+1.2°C/+1.1 hPa for annual GAR-means) evolved stepwise with a first peak near 1950 and the second increase (1.3°C/0.6hPa per 25 years) starting in the 1970s. Centennial and decadal scale temperature trends were identical for all subregions. Air pressure, sunshine and cloudiness show significant differences between low versus high elevations. A long-term increase of the high-elevation series relative to the low-elevation series is given for sunshine and air pressure. Of special interest is the exceptional high correlation near 0.9 between the series on mean temperature and air pressure difference (high-minus low-elevation). This, further developed via some atmospheric statics and thermodynamics, allows the creation of 'barometric temperature series' without use of the measures of temperature. They support the measured temperature trends in the region. Precipitation shows the most significant regional and seasonal differences with, e.g., remarkable opposite 20th century evolution for NW (9% increase) versus SE (9% decrease). Other long-and short-term features are discussed and indicate the promising potential of the new database for further analyses and applications.

Multiple tree-ring proxies (earlywood width, latewood width and δ13C) from pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.), Hungary

“…In addition, the potential to expand the existing chronology is large in this area due to its richness in historical wooden structures dating back to the Medieval Times (Kovács, 1999;Sisa, 2001). November-August precipitation totals derived from the homogenized monthly precipitation record of Budapest (Auer et al, 2007), C: latewood width of pedunculate oaks from Bakta Forest northeast Hungary (this study), D: September-August precipitation total from Balaton Highlands (Kern et al, 2009). All records were converted to Z-scores to have zero mean and unit variance over the 20 th century, with the bold lines being 20 year low-pass filters.…”

“…Cross-sectional disk samples from ~0. (Büntgen et al, 2010a), BUD: Budapest (Auer et al, 2007), BAL: Balaton Highlands (Kern et al, 2009). C: Long-term mean monthly precipitation totals at the study site (after Pályi, 2010).…”

“…These are ringwidth-based reconstruction of summer drought from the Low Tatras (hereafter LT, Büntgen et al, 2010a); September-August precipitation from the Balaton Highlands (hereafter BAL, Kern et al, 2009) and the homogenised monthly precipitation record from Budapest (hereafter BUD, Auer et al, 2007), representing the longest continuous instrumental precipitation record from the region. It is still too early to build a formal quantitative hydroclimatic reconstruction for the Nyirség area, especially, as discussed above, proxy-combination obviously offers significantly improved reconstruction skills for the future.…”

Extrapolating glacier mass balance to the mountain-range scale: the European Alps 1900–2100

“…The main water divides often correspond to borders of specific climatic patterns (Auer et al, 2007). Calculation of B i,r is based on the 50 long-term mass balance series, and is supported by data of 25 additional WGMS glaciers for the years covered by these series.…”

A standard paleoclimatological approach to temperature reconstruction in historical climatology: an example from the Czech Republic, A.D. 1718–2007

“…An average of three homogeneous temperature series -from Kremsmünster since 1767 (Auer et al, 2007), Basle since 1755 (Begert et al, 2005) and Germany since 1761 (Rapp, 2000) -was used as a reference series to homogenize PragueKlementinum temperature series through the Standard Normal Homogeneity Test, after Alexandersson (1986). Inhomogeneities detected in monthly, seasonal and annual series were then compared with the station metadata and finally adjusted.…”