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Large-scale synoptic types and their impact on European precipitation

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Abstract

Atmospheric circulation strongly modulates precipitation patterns throughout Europe. A selection of synoptic types was chosen to investigate the impact of circulation on the spatial distribution of precipitation within Europe and neighbouring regions (for 1951–2010). Applied were (1) the original and one automated version of the Grosswetterlagen classification, (2) the Vangengeim–Girs classification and (3) a dataset of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Daily values of the E-OBS gridded precipitation dataset were allocated to synoptic types, visualising precipitation anomalies (in percent) during winter (October–March) and summer (April–September) half years. Anomalies from average precipitation conditions (only) contain days connected to each of the investigated synoptic types. Distinct anomaly patterns become visible and are explained by the location of pressure systems. Patterns are spatially similar between both half years for Grosswetterlagen and Vangengeim–Girs classifications, while the NAO shows pronounced seasonal changes. Precipitation anomaly maps were applied to help explain observed changes in European precipitation amounts from 1981 to 2010, as compared to 1951–1980. Changes of precipitation amounts were related to frequency changes of synoptic types, predominantly during the winter half year. Here, increasing (decreasing) frequencies of synoptic types connected to westerly (easterly) inflow supported higher precipitation amounts in northern Europe and lower amounts in southern Europe.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a DAAD doctoral scholarship for short-term research in Estonia, the Estonian DORA5 programme (EU supported), and the Estonian Science Foundation grant no 7526. We thank Jaak Jaagus and Paul James for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. A very special thanks to Victor Lagun and his colleagues at AARI in St. Petersburg, Russia for the VGc data and to Paul James for the SVGc data. We acknowledge the E-OBS dataset from the EU-FP6 project ENSEMBLES (http://ensembles-eu.metoffice.com) and the data providers in the ECA&D project (http://www.ecad.eu).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Environmental Research Centre, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Brennhausgasse 14, 09599, Freiberg, Germany

    Andreas Hoy, Anne Schucknecht & Jörg Matschullat

  2. Department of Geography, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Vanemuise 46, 51014, Tartu, Estonia

    Andreas Hoy & Mait Sepp

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  1. Andreas Hoy
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A1

Maps of air pressure deviations (in hectopascal) from average values (1901–2003) of SVGc synoptic types for WHY (left) and SHY (right) (downwards): (1) W#, (2) N#, (3) E#, (4) S# (DOC 3.90 MB)

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Hoy, A., Schucknecht, A., Sepp, M. et al. Large-scale synoptic types and their impact on European precipitation. Theor Appl Climatol 116, 19–35 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-013-0897-x

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