Thermally and Dynamically Induced Pressure Features over Complex Terrain from High-Resolution Analyses

Abstract

Abstract Within the Vienna Enhanced Resolution Analysis (VERA) Climatology (VERACLIM) project, the complex influence of topographic structures on the spatial distribution of meteorological parameters has been investigated and evaluated climatologically. VERACLIM is aimed to generate a set of high-resolution analyses (lower meso-β-scale) of various meteorological parameters on a climatological basis. It tried to combine both the high spatial resolution provided by the VERA scheme that was used and the high temporal resolution of a comprehensive synoptic dataset of the last two decades, which was retrieved from ECMWF’s Meteorological Archival and Retrieval System (MARS). In the present study, the interpolated fields of reduced pressure of 3-hourly synoptic data over the Alpine region are evaluated climatologically. Using high temporal and spatial resolution, the authors were able to investigate both thermally and dynamically induced mesoscale pressure phenomena such as “Stau,” associated with trans-Alpine flows, blocking by the Alps, and local pressure extrema, as well as thermal lows and thermal high pressure zones. Comparisons are made between the mean course of reduced pressure at given grid points and the averaged divergence of the 10-m wind field in the Alpine region. It is shown that, climatologically, Alpine pumping and thermally induced pressure patterns have a similar frequency and intensity. For the latter ones, the buildup and cutback processes are described. Moreover, the frequency and intensity of pressure-related mesoscale features in the Alpine region over the last decades are investigated.