Imperial College London

DrPauloCeppi

Faculty of Natural SciencesDepartment of Physics

Senior Lecturer in Climate Science
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 1710p.ceppi Website

 
 
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Location

 

725Huxley BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Ceppi:2012:10.1002/joc.2260,
author = {Ceppi, P and Scherrer, SC and Fischer, AM and Appenzeller, C},
doi = {10.1002/joc.2260},
journal = {International Journal of Climatology},
pages = {203--213},
title = {Revisiting Swiss temperature trends 1959-2008},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joc.2260},
volume = {32},
year = {2012}
}

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB - Temperature is a key variable for monitoring global climate change. Here we perform a trend analysis of Swiss temperatures from 1959 to 2008, using a new 2 × 2 km gridded dataset based on carefully homogenised ground observations from MeteoSwiss. The aim of this study is twofold: first, to discuss the spatial and altitudinal temperature trend characteristics in detail, and second, to quantify the contribution of changes in atmospheric circulation and local effects to these trends.The seasonal trends are all positive and mostly significant with an annual average warming rate of 0.35 °C/decade (∼1.6 times the northern hemispheric warming rate), ranging from 0.17 in autumn to 0.48 °C/decade in summer. Altitudedependent trends are found in autumn and early winter where the trends are stronger at low altitudes (<800 m asl), and in spring where slightly stronger trends are found at altitudes close to the snow line.Part of the trends can be explained by changes in atmospheric circulation, but with substantial differences from season to season. In winter, circulation effects account for more than half the trends, while this contribution is much smaller in other seasons. After removing the effect of circulation, the trends still show seasonal variations with higher values in spring and summer. The circulationcorrected trends are closer to the values simulated by a set of ENSEMBLES regional climate models, with the models still tending towards a trend underestimation in spring and summer.Our results suggest that both circulation changes and more local effects are important to explain part of recent warming in spring, summer, and autumn. Snowalbedo feedback effects could be responsible for the stronger spring trends at altitudes close to the snow line, but the overall effect is small. In autumn, the observed decrease in fog frequency might be a key process in explaining the stronger temperature trends at low altitudes.
AU - Ceppi,P
AU - Scherrer,SC
AU - Fischer,AM
AU - Appenzeller,C
DO - 10.1002/joc.2260
EP - 213
PY - 2012///
SN - 0899-8418
SP - 203
TI - Revisiting Swiss temperature trends 1959-2008
T2 - International Journal of Climatology
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joc.2260
UR - http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000299103000004&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
UR - https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/joc.2260
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/76104
VL - 32
ER -