TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rottler, Erwin
A1  - Kormann, Christoph Martin
A1  - Francke, Till
A1  - Bronstert, Axel
T1  - Elevation-dependent warming in the Swiss Alps 1981-2017
BT  - Features, forcings and feedbacks
JF  - International journal of climatology : a journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
N2  - Due to the environmental and socio-economic importance of mountainous regions, it is crucial to understand causes and consequences of climatic changes in those sensitive landscapes. Daily resolution alpine climate data from Switzerland covering an elevation range of over 3,000m between 1981 and 2017 have been analysed using highly resolved trends in order to gain a better understanding of features, forcings and feedbacks related to temperature changes in mountainous regions. Particular focus is put on processes related to changes in weather types, incoming solar radiation, cloud cover, air humidity, snow/ice and elevation dependency of temperature trends. Temperature trends in Switzerland differ depending on the time of the year, day and elevation. Warming is strongest during spring and early summer with enhanced warming of daytime maximum temperatures. Elevation-based differences in temperature trends occur during autumn and winter with stronger warming at lower elevations. We attribute this elevation-dependent temperature signal mainly to elevation-based differences in trends of incoming solar radiation and elevation-sensitive responses to changes in frequencies of weather types. In general, effects of varying frequencies of weather types overlap with trends caused by transmission changes in short- and long-wave radiation. Temperature signals arising from snow/ice albedo feedback mechanisms are probably small and might be hidden by other effects.
KW  - cloud cover
KW  - elevation dependency
KW  - mountain climate
KW  - snow
KW  - ice-albedo feedback
KW  - Swiss Alps
KW  - temperature trend
KW  - weather types
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.5970
SN  - 0899-8418
SN  - 1097-0088
VL  - 39
IS  - 5
SP  - 2556
EP  - 2568
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Hoboken
ER  -