Université de Fribourg

The European mountain cryosphere: a review of its current state, trends, and future challenges

Beniston, Martin ; Farinotti, Daniel ; Stoffel, Markus ; Andreassen, Liss M. ; Coppola, Erika ; Eckert, Nicolas ; Fantini, Adriano ; Giacona, Florie ; Hauck, Christian ; Huss, Matthias ; Huwald, Hendrik ; Lehning, Michael ; López-Moreno, Juan-Ignacio ; Magnusson, Jan ; Marty, Christoph ; Morán-Tejéda, Enrique ; Morin, Samuel ; Naaim, Mohamed ; Provenzale, Antonello ; Rabatel, Antoine ; Six, Delphine ; Stötter, Johann ; Strasser, Ulrich ; Terzago, Silvia ; Vincent, Christian

In: The Cryosphere, 2018, vol. 12, no. 2, p. 759–794

The mountain cryosphere of mainland Europe is recognized to have important impacts on a range of environmental processes. In this paper, we provide an overview on the current knowledge on snow, glacier, and permafrost processes, as well as their past, current, and future evolution. We additionally provide an assessment of current cryosphere research in Europe and point to the different...

Université de Fribourg

Extreme climatic events: Examples from the alpine region

Beniston, Martin

In: Journal de Physique IV (Proceedings), 2004, vol. 121, p. 139

This paper provides a general overview of climatic extremes, how they may be defined and what they represent both in statistical and in physical terms, as well as the impacts they are capable of generating. A particular case study, namely the heat wave that affected many parts of Europe from June-August 2003, will be discussed in some detail. The final part of the paper will investigate, on the...

Université de Fribourg

Mountain climates and climatic change: an overview of processes focusing on the european Alps

Beniston, Martin

In: Pure and Applied Geophysics, 2005, vol. 162(8-9), p. 1587

This contribution provides an overview of the intricacies of mountain climates, particularly as they pertain to the European Alps. Examples will be given of issues that are related to climatic change as observed in the Alps during the course of the 20th century, and some of the physical mechanisms that may be responsible for those changes. The discussion will then focus on the problems...

Université de Fribourg

August 2005 intense rainfall event in Switzerland: not necessarily an analog for strong convective events in a greenhouse climate

Beniston, Martin

In: Geophysical research letters, 2006, vol. 33, p. L0570

The intense convective storms that affected the Swiss Alps in late August 2005 resulted in what has been referred to as the “floods of the century” (i.e., the past 100 years). While exceptional in terms of their intensity, the 2005 storms do not appear to be anchored within any long-term trends; there are no more intense storms today than a century ago. Despite uncertainties related to...

Université de Fribourg

Mountain weather and climate : a general overview and a focus on climatic change in the Alps

Beniston, Martin

In: Hydrobiologia, 2006, vol. 562, p. 3-16

Meteorological and climatic processes in mountain regions play a key role in many environmental systems, in particular the quantity and quality of water that influences both aquatic ecosystems and economic systems often far beyond the boundaries of the mountains themselves. This paper will provide a general overview of some of the particular characteristics of mountain weather and climate, to...

Université de Fribourg

Future extreme events in European climate: an exploration of regional climate model projections

Beniston, Martin ; Stephenson, David B. ; Christensen, Ole B. ; Ferro, Christopher A. T. ; Frei, Christoph ; Goyette, Stéphane ; Halsnaes, Kirsten ; Holt, Tom ; Jylhä, Kirsti ; Koffi, Brigitte ; Palutikof, Jean ; Schöll, Regina ; Semmler, Tido ; Woth, Katja

In: Climatic Change, 2007, vol. 81, no. Supl. 1, p. 71-95

This paper presents an overview of changes in the extreme events that are most likely to affect Europe in forthcoming decades. A variety of diagnostic methods are used to determine how heat waves, heavy precipitation, drought, wind storms, and storm surges change between present (1961–90) and future (2071–2100) climate on the basis of regional climate model simulations produced by the...

Université de Fribourg

Climate-based site selection for a very large telescope using GIS techniques

Graham, Edward ; Sarazin, Marc S. ; Beniston, Martin ; Collet, Claude ; Hayoz, Michael ; Neun, Moritz ; Casals, Paula

In: Meteorological Applications, 2005, vol. 12, p. 77

Astronomical research at present requires that a telescope with an aperture diameter of between 50 and 100 metres be constructed within the next 10 years or so. This new generation of telescopes will be called OWL (Overwhelmingly Large), and it represents one order of magnitude increase in size over today's telescopes. Selection of an ideal site for this giant telescope is dependent on many...

Université de Fribourg

Site selection for OWL using past, present, and future climate information

Graham, Edward ; Sarazin, Marc S. ; Beniston, Martin ; Collet, Claude ; Hayoz, Michael ; Neun, Moritz ; Goyette, Stéphane

In: Proceedings of SPIE, 2004, vol. 5489, p. 102

Selection of an ideal site for the new generation of Overwhelmingly Large (OWL) telescopes is dependent on many climatological and meteorological parameters. Among these are cloud cover, atmospheric humidity, aerosol content, air temperature, airflow direction, strength and turbulence. Even relatively minor changes in weather patterns can have a significant effect on seeing conditions. A...