caa a22 4500 445800771 CHVBK 20180317145140.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20111001xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00704-010-0394-4 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00704-010-0394-4 Regional climate simulations for the European Alpine Region—sensitivity of precipitation to large-scale flow conditions of driving input data [Elektronische Daten] [Andreas Pfeiffer, Günther Zängl] The MM5 modelling system has been used to perform regional climate simulations over Western Europe on a 45-km grid for the years 1971 to 2000. We focus our analysis on the impact of the driving input data on simulated precipitation in the Alpine area. Using ERA40 reanalysis data, the MM5 climatology of precipitation compares reasonably well with an observational climatology for the Alpine region. Switching to an ECHAM5 climate simulation as driving data induces excessive overprediction by up to 80% in the colder seasons there, primarily over the Alpine slopes. The large-scale flow provided by the global datasets revealed moderate differences indicating an increased number of low-pressure systems travelling from the Atlantic into the Alpine region for ECHAM5 compared with ERA40. Mean seasonal 700-hPa wind speeds correspondingly showed higher values for the ECHAM5 driven simulation in the central Alps. Partitioning three-hourly 700-hPa winds according to direction and speed in the central Alps specifically revealed a distinct shift to stronger westerly and north-westerly winds. Furthermore, aggregating three-hourly rainfall amounts to the same wind direction and wind speed intervals as for the wind statistics revealed strongly intensified precipitation due to the overly intense westerly winds, implying too intense orographic precipitation enhancement. Springer-Verlag, 2011 Pfeiffer Andreas Meteorologisches Institut der Universität München, Theresienstraße 37, 80333, Munich, Germany aut Zängl Günther Deutscher Wetterdienst, Frankfurter Straße 135, 63067, Offenbach, Germany aut Theoretical and Applied Climatology Springer Vienna 105/3-4(2011-10-01), 325-340 0177-798X 105:3-4<325 2011 105 704 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-010-0394-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-010-0394-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Pfeiffer Andreas Meteorologisches Institut der Universität München, Theresienstraße 37, 80333, Munich, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Zängl Günther Deutscher Wetterdienst, Frankfurter Straße 135, 63067, Offenbach, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Theoretical and Applied Climatology Springer Vienna 105/3-4(2011-10-01), 325-340 0177-798X 105:3-4<325 2011 105 704 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer