Climate of the Romanian Carpathians Variability and Trends

About this book

Climate of the Romanian Carpathians is a comprehensive climatic monograph, which addresses one of the most complex mountain environments in Europe, the Carpathians Chain, focusing on the branches that lie over Romania. Climate of the Romanian Carpathians aggregates high quality input data, state-of-the-art techniques, regional analysis and overview perspectives, while addressing the spatial and temporal patterns of the main climatic elements. The study covers the period 1961-2010, for the present climate, while the perspective is extended up to 2050.

The main climatic elements (e.g. air temperature, precipitation, wind) are analyzed, but some specific variables like snow depth and snow cover are also examined, both in terms of average behaviour and extreme characteristics. This is the first synthesis addressing the climate of this mountain region, and it provides useful information for scientists, mountain stakeholders, decision-makers and general public.

Contents

1.  Introduction

2.  Theoretical background
2.1 Mountain regions – key issues in environmental research
2.1.1 Mountain regions and climate change
2.1.2 Mountain research in the Carpathian region
2.2 Weather and climate of the Romanian Carpathians: a literature review
References

3.  Study area
3.1    Geographical location of the Romanian Carpathians within the Carpathian Chain
3.2    General morphological settings
3.3    Paleogeographic evolution and geological constitution
3.4    Hydrology and hydrogeology
3.5    Zonation of vegetation and soils
References

4.  Data
4.1    Datasets
4.2    Mountain meteorological network
References
 
5.  Methods
5.1    Homogenization
5.2    Statistical methods
5.2.1   Mann-Kendall trend test
5.2.2   Kendall-Theil slope estimate
5.2.3   Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient
5.3    Spatialization of climatic information
5.4    Regional climate models
References

6.  Geographical and synoptic control on the climate
6.1    Latitude
6.2    Topography
6.2.1   Altitude
6.2.2   Slope aspect
6.2.3   Slope angle
6.2.4   Landforms
6.3    Regional atmospheric circulation
References

7.  Regional climatic patterns
7.1    Solar radiation
7.2    Air temperature
7.2.1   Average air temperature lapse rate
7.2.2   Vertical thermal zonation
7.2.3   Annual variation of average temperature
7.2.4   Lapse rates of minimum and maximum temperatures
7.2.5   Spatial distribution of minimum and maximum temperatures
7.2.6   Annual variation of minimum and maximum temperatures
7.2.7   Extreme temperature records
7.3    Precipitation
7.3.1   Vertical zonation and spatial distribution
7.3.2   Wind-induced bias
7.3.3   Annual variation
7.3.4   Precipitation type
7.3.5   Precipitation absolute records
7.4    Wind
7.4.1   Surface wind direction
7.4.2   Surface wind speed
7.4.3   Maximum wind speed
7.4.4   Atmospheric calm
7.4.5   Local winds
7.5    Snowfall and snowpack
7.5.1   Atmospheric circulation patterns related to snowfall events
7.5.2   Snowfall occurrence interval
7.5.3   Snowfall frequency
7.5.4   Snow showers
7.5.5   Snow cover interval
7.5.6   Snow depth
7.5.7   Snow water equivalent
References

8.  Observed variability trends from instrumental records
8.1    Air temperature
8.2    Precipitation
8.3    Wind
8.4    Snowpack
8.5    Influence of large-scale circulation
References

9.  Changing climate extremes in the last five decades
9.1    Change in air temperature extremes
9.2    Change in precipitation extremes
9.3    Change in snow extremes
References

10.  Projections of future changes in climate of the Romanian Carpathians

11.  Conclusions

Index

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