Climate Change and European Snow Cover

Dr. Sven Kotlarski

A correct description of snow characteristics is of major importance for the simulation of surface-atmosphere energy fluxes in regional climate models. At the same time snow modelling poses special challenges due to the non-linear processes involved and their pronounced spatial variability. If the future evolution of regional snow cover is of interest, the ability of RCMs to reproduce present-day conditions should be investigated beforehand.

This project (1) investigates the ability of current regional climate models to represent observed snow cover characteristics and (2) produces scenarios of 21st century changes in European snow cover (snow water equivalent, snow cover extent, duration of the snow season, etc.) based on transient RCM climate change experiments. A focus is put on the European Alps, a region with high socio-economic relevance of snow cover.

Fig 1: Projected change of winter snow water equivalent [%] until the end of the 21st century in six regional climate models