As part of the ALP-IMP project, high-resolution gridded climatic fields dataset are developed for the Greater Alpine Region of Europe (GAR; 4°E-19°E, 43°N-49°N) by the Climatic Research Unit. This activity utilizes data from various sources, mainly from the HISTALP database.
The precipitation dataset (alp_pre_dat.txt) provides monthly precipitation totals, for the 1800-2003 period, gridded at 10-minute resolution. The dataset is based on 192 long-term homogenized precipitation series from meteorological stations across the study domain and a high-resolution precipitation climatology for the 1971-1990 period. The effective coverage of the dataset depends on the observations available in the station network which progressively declines back to the early 19th century (from 192 to 5 stations). To aid the use of these data in other studies, an accompanying dataset (alp_pre_acc.txt) has also been developed, which provides a measure of the quality of each monthly precipitation estimate over the grid: the explained variance, relative to the 1931-2000 (maximum data availability) period. Short and extended descriptions of the development of the datasets are provided by two supplementary documents: alp_pre.txt & alp_pre.pdf. The latter document also contains a preliminary evaluation against station-based and independently-developed grid-based datasets.
| Filename | Format | Size | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| alp_pre_dat.txt.gz | gzipped ASCII | 11.1 MB | 10-min-grid precipitation (mm/month) |
| alp_pre_dat.nc | NetCDF | 31.1 MB | |
| alp_pre_acc.txt.gz | gzipped ASCII | 1.5 MB | 10-min-grid explained variance score (%) |
| alp_pre_acc.nc | NetCDF | 31.1 MB | |
| alp_pre.txt | ASCII | 9 KB | Information on the content, structure and development of the above datasets |
| alp_pre.pdf | 1.3 MB | Description of the dataset development and evaluation |
The HISTALP database consists of monthly homogenised temperature, pressure, precipitation, sunshine and cloudiness records for the realm of the European Alps, and is maintained by the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG), at Vienna.
High-resolution gridded datasets with continental/global coverage are also available from the Climatic Research Unit.
Datasets are managed by a variety of people and projects within CRU. Some are available on-line, others must be requested from the person responsible for them.
The various datasets on the CRU website are provided for all to use, provided the sources are acknowledged. Acknowledgement should preferably be by citing one or more of the papers referenced on the appropriate page. The website can also be acknowledged if deemed necessary. CRU will endeavour to update the majority of the data pages at timely intervals although this cannot be guaranteed by specific dates.
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