Advances in Mountain Climate
Research
Roger G. Barry
NSIDC/CIRES
and
Dept of Geography
University of Colorado
Boulder
OUTLINE
• 1. Regional coverage of mountains is
increasing
• 2. MAP research on orographic
precipitation and winds
• 3. Increased use of sounders/profilers
• 4. R/S of snow cover and glaciers
• 5. Climate change research
Regional coverage
• Studies in Central Asia and Himalaya/Tibet,
the Andes/Altiplano, and the New Zealand Alps
(included in the 3rd edn of “Mountain Weather
& Climate” 2008):
•
•
•
•
Central Asia - Getker: precip gradients
Himalaya/Tibet - new high-alt AWS sites
Andes - precip gradients; high-alt AWS
NZ Alps - wind regimes
Precipitation gradients
Gradients in central Asia
Mesoscale Alpine Program
• MAP provided new research on orographic
precipitation and winds – gap and foehn winds.
• MAP involved multiple groups, with aircraft, 9
Rawins, 50 surface stations, 2 wind profilers, 2
LIDAR and 4 SODAR profilers, tethered and
constant volume balloons, an instrumented
cable car and automobile, field teams, and
modeling. IOPs Sep-Nov 1999.
MAP
• Swiss orographic precipitation is shown
to differ from earlier inferred altitudinal
increase. Maxima on N and S slopes of
the Alps at intermediate altitudes of
~1000m but N-S transects in western and
central Switzerland show different
altitudinal patterns.
Swiss Precipitation transect:
mean thro’ the E’n Alps
Two precipitation transects
Modeling valley wind flows
Use of sounders/profilers
• Increased use of sounders/profilers in
local wind and lee wave studies
• e.g. T- REX experiment on Sierra rotors
(Terrain-induced Rotor Experiment),
Mch-Apr 2006.
Sierra Nevada rotor clouds
Sierra Nevada lee waves and rotor
Time plot of vertical velocity
Satellite remote sensing
• Mapping changes in snow and glaciers
- use of ASTER and Landsat for the Global
Land Ice Measurement from Space (GLIMS)
project at NSIDC
> 62,000 glacier outlines available
Analyses of glacier recession for the Tien Shan
and Pamir (Khromova et al., 2003, 2006)
Glacier change, central Tien Shan
Sonnblick, Austria Temp trend
Climate change research
CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH
Niwot Ridge
Why do D-1 and C-1 differ
• Climate trends different in the alpine and
forested subalpine
• C-1 and D-1 differ only 700 m in elevation
and C-1 is 7 km farther east
• Are the two areas decoupled?
* Or, do the 2 areas respond differently to the
same regional forcing, e.g. role of longer
alpine snow cover.
Concluding remarks
The field is very active:
• New regions are being instrumented
- plans for 6 AWS in Ethiopian Mountains
* Meetings - AMS, Alpine Meteorology,
CIRMOUNT, …..
* Science and cultural studies in view of climate
change impacts
* Young scientists involved.