In: Climate Dynamics, 2001, vol. 18(1-2), p. 145
The windstorm VIVIAN that severely affected Switzerland in February 1990 has been investigated using the Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM). This winter storm was characterised by a deep cyclone in the North Atlantic and by strong geopotential and baroclinic north-south gradients in the troposphere over Western Europe resulting in high windspeeds in Switzerland. Our principal emphasis is to...
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In: International Journal of Climatology, 2002, vol. 22(4), p. 485
The nowcasting and prediction of strong winds are still far from adequate, using either statistical or numerical modelling approaches. During the last decade, Switzerland has been struck by two extratropical storms, namely the February 1990 storm Vivian, and the December 1999 storm Lothar, that caused severe damage to infrastructure and to forests. Although numerical weather prediction models...
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In: Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 2003, vol. 74, no. 1-2, p. 19-31
In many instances, snow cover and duration are a major controlling factor on a range of environmental systems in mountain regions. When assessing the impacts of climatic change on mountain ecosystems and river basins whose origin lie in the Alps, one of the key controls on such systems will reside in changes in snow amount and duration. At present, regional climate models or statistical...
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In: Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 2003, vol. 76, p. 125
Snow is a key feature of mountain environments in terms of the controls it exerts on hydrology, vegetation, and in terms of its economic significance (e.g., for the ski industry). Its quantification in a changing climate is thus important for various environmental and economic impact assessments. Based on observational analysis, surface energy balance modeling, and the latest data from...
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In: Journal of Geophysical Research, 2003, vol. 108, no. 13, p. 1-16
The implementation of a physically based parameterization scheme for computation of wind gusts in a numerical regional climate model (RCM) is described in this paper. The method is based on an innovative approach proposed by Brasseur [2001] that assumes that gusts occurring at the surface result from the deflection of air parcels flowing higher in the boundary layer. Our parameterization scheme...
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