Partner und Internationale Organisationen
(Englisch)
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AT, BE, CY, FI, FR, DE, EL, HU, IT, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, SI, ES, SE, CH, UK
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Abstract
(Englisch)
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A major topic of this COST project was to investigate the possibilities, limitations and future challenges for the use of output from Regional Climate Models (RCMs) in complex high-mountain topography for GIS-applications to cryosphere models. The Zurich-part of the project has concentrated on the coupling between RCM-output and GIS-based cryospheric models, in particular permafrost and glacier impact models. Close collaboration has taken place between our Department and the IAC of ETHZ and the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg. For the permafrost models two downscaling procedures were developed and applied. They integrate homogenized meteo data with RCM-output from ERA40, Control and Scenario runs. The approaches are handling the associated uncertainties and they permit possible changes in the climate variability. Ten different RCM-based scenario time series were applied to a local energy balance model to assess possible ranges of change in the ground surface temperature (GST) of steep rockwalls with variable topographical characteristics (elevation, slope, aspect). With the exception of aspect, the topographic effects were in general small. A comparision between the results for GST based on the RCM-scenarios and from incremental scenarios showed that the use of RCM-data should be mandatory. For the glacier models, a distributed glacier mass balance model of intermediate complexity was developed and applied. This model combines measured meteorological data with gridded data sets, such as glacier albedo derived from satellite measurements and digital elevation models. The glacier model was then forced with output from a RCM (driven by ERA40 data) and a nearby climate station. The results were compared with measured mass balance profiles from two glaciers within the investigation area. Despite the difference in the meteorological input data, the modelled mass balance profiles were very similar and also in close agreement with the measurements for both balance years. By developing the methodology for treating the scale-transition problem involved with the Regional Climate and high-resolution GIS models, the project opened important future possibilities for regional to local climate-related impact studies.
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