Michael Warscher

University of Innsbruck | UIBK · Institute of Geography

The mass balance of very small glaciers is often governed by anomalous snow accumulation, winter precipitation being multiplied by snow redistribution processes (gravitationally or wind driven), or suppressed snow ablation driven by micrometeorological effects lowering net radiation and/or turbulent heat exchange. In this case study, we analysed th...

Mountain regions with complex orography are a particular challenge for regional climate simulations. High spatial resolution is required to account for the high spatial variability in meteorological conditions. This study presents a very high-resolution regional climate simulation (5 km) using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) for th...

Snow models that solve coupled energy and mass balances require model parameters to be set, just like their conceptual counterparts. Despite the physical basis of these models, appropriate choices of the parameter values entail a rather high degree of uncertainty as some of them are not directly measurable, observations are lacking, or values are n...

In snow-dominated river basins, floods often occur during early summer, when snowmelt-induced runoff superimposes with rainfall-induced runoff. An earlier onset of seasonal snowmelt as a consequence of a warming climate is often expected to shift snowmelt contribution to river runoff and potential flooding to an earlier date. Against this backgroun...

According to the living data process in ESSD, this publication presents extensions of a comprehensive hydrometeorological and glaciological data set for several research sites in the Rofental (1891–3772 m a.s.l., Ötztal Alps, Austria). Whereas the original dataset has been published in a first original version in 2018 (https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-...

Mountain regions are climate sensitive zones and a particular challenge for regional climate and hydrology simulations. The complex orography with extreme elevation gradients, as well as varied land cover and ecosystems at small spatial scales lead to a high variability of climatic conditions and hydrological processes. We present a case study for...

The mass balance of very small glaciers is often governed either by anomalous snow accumulation, winter precipitation being multiplied by snow redistribution processes (gravitationally or wind-driven), or by suppressed snow ablation driven by micrometeorological effects lowering net radiation and/or turbulent heat exchange. In this case study, we a...

The understanding of alpine groundwater dynamics and the interactions with surface stream water is crucial for water resources research and management in mountain regions. In order to characterize local spring and stream water systems, samples at 8 springs, 5 stream gauges and bulk samples of precipitation at 4 sites were regularly collected betwee...

West African summer monsoon precipitation is characterized by distinct decadal variability. Due to its well-documented link to oceanic boundary conditions in various ocean basins it represents a paradigm for decadal predictability. In this study, we reappraise this hypothesis for several sub-regions of sub-Saharan West Africa using the new German c...

BIAS

Seasonal snow cover is an important temporary water storage in high-elevation regions. Especially in remote areas, the available data are often insufficient to accurately quantify snowmelt contributions to streamflow. The limited knowledge about the spatiotemporal variability of the snowmelt isotopic composition, as well as pronounced spatial varia...

Seasonal snow cover is an important temporary water storage in high-elevation regions. Especially in remote areas, the available data is often insufficient to explicitly quantify snowmelt contributions to streamflow. The unknown spatio-temporal variability of the snowmelt isotopic content, as well as pronounced spatial variations of snowmelt rates...

Abstract An extensive sampling campaign was started in January 2012 in the Berchtesgaden Alps located in the southeast of Germany. Monthly samples at 8 springs, 5 stream gauges and bulk samples of precipitation at 7 sites were collected since then. The samples were analyzed for the stable water isotopes oxygen-18 and deuterium. The sampled water sy...

This article describes the extension of the ESCIMO.spread spreadsheet-based point energy balance snow model by (i) an advanced approach for precipitation phase detection, (ii) a method for cold content and liquid water storage consideration and (iii) a canopy sub-model that allows the quantification of canopy effects on the meteorological condition...

The West African monsoon rainfall is essential for regional food production, and decadal predictions are necessary for policy-makers and farmers. However, predictions with global climate models reveal precipitation biases. This study addresses the hypotheses that global prediction biases can be reduced by dynamical downscaling with a multi-model en...

The improved understanding of the interlinked atmospheric and terrestrial hydrological processes requires concerted and compartment-crossing observation and -modeling efforts. Through the TERENO preAlpine Observatory, located in the southern Bavarian region of Germany, comprehensive technical infrastructure is being established to allow joint analy...

Forests represent significant areas of subalpine environments and their influence is crucial for the snow cover dynamics on the ground. Since measurements of major micrometeorological variables are usually lacking for forested sites, physically based or empirical parameterizations are usually applied to calculate the beneath-canopy micrometeorologi...

The water balance in high Alpine regions in its full complexity is so far insufficiently understood. Large altitudinal gradients, a strong variability of meteorological variables in time and space, complex hydrogeological settings, and heterogeneous snow cover dynamics result in high uncertainties in the quantification of the water flux and storage...

Modelling the spatio-temporal distribution of snow cover properties (SWE and SD) in alpine environments is still very challenging. Frequently used model algorithms were often developed in geographic regions and climatic conditions (e.g. flat, low-elevated and open terrain), different to them they are finally applied to (e.g. steep, high-elevated, w...

West African summer monsoon precipitation (WAM) is a promising candidate in the context of decadal predictability. WAM characteristics are closely connected to oceanic circulation patterns and specifically to long-term oscillations in Northern Hemisphere oceans. Besides ocean temperatures, West African climate is controlled by land-cover characteri...

Distributed hydrological modeling in karst dominated catchments is challenging as various unknown underground flow conditions and flow directions lead to unknown storage quantities. Missing parameterization in karst catchments at regional scale prevents reliable hydrological modeling of subsurface (unsaturated and saturated) water fluxes; and conse...

The variability of meteorological parameters, a complex hydrogeology and heterogeneous snow cover dynamics affect the water balance in high alpine terrain. Distributed hydrological modeling is facing challenges in those environments and therefore needs to be adapted to the given conditions. We apply the deterministic hydrological model WaSiM-ETH (S...

The Berchtesgaden National Park (Bavaria, Germany), a study site of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere program in the catchment of Berchtesgadener Ache, is introduced as a platform for interdisciplinary research. As the investigation of how human activities affect the natural resources in the park area, which has been defined a main aim of the progra...

Key Points Complex snow descriptions reproduce observed snow distribution Energy balance method enhances modeling daily snowmelt and discharge variations Simulating lateral snow transport improves runoff modeling in the catchment

The regional water balance of mountainous catchments in the northern limestone Alps is affected by the temporal and spatial variability of meteorological parameters, steep gradients and a complex hydrogeological situation. The karst aquifer with its subsurface flow channel network, fractures and rock matrix has so far unknown effects on the spatial...

The water balance in high Alpine regions is often characterized by significant variation of meteorological variables in space and time, a complex hydrogeological situation and steep gradients. The system is even more complex when the rock composition is dominated by soluble limestone, because unknown underground flow conditions and flow directions...

Snow interception in a coniferous forest canopy is an important hydrological feature, producing complex mass and energy exchanges with the surrounding atmosphere and the snowpack below. Subcanopy snowpack accumulation and ablation depends on the effects of canopy architecture on meteorological conditions and on interception storage by stems, branch...

The scientific software tool AMUNDSEN (Alpine MUltiscale Numerical Distributed Simulation ENgine) for the continuous modelling of Alpine hydrological processes provides distributed time series of energy and water mass fluxes for high mountain regions employing a wide range of interpolation, parameterization, and simulation procedures. The model is...

The water balance in Alpine regions is highly affected by the dynamics of the snow cover and the respective water fluxes. High altitudinal gradients and small scale orographic effects cause a large temporal and spatial variability of meteorological variables that force the development of the snow pack. A main driver of the resulting spatial heterog...

The physically based Alpine snowcover model AMUNDSEN (Alpine MUltiscale Numerical Distributed Simulation ENgine) for the continuous modelling of hydro-climatological processes provides distributed time series of energy and water mass fluxes for high mountain regions employing a wide range of interpolation, parameterization, and simulation procedure...

The water balance in high alpine regions in its full complexity is so far insufficiently understood. High altitudinal gradients, a strong variability of meteorological variables in time and space, complex hydrogeological situations, unquantified lateral snow transport processes and heterogenous snow cover dynamics result in high uncertainties in th...

High alpine terrain is characterized by high altitudinal gradients, heterogeneous climatic conditions, unknown subsurface hydrological pathways and not quantified lateral snow processes. These conditions lead to uncertainties in the quantification of the water balance, especially the storage element. We implement the deterministic hydrological mode...

Mountain forests are primarily composed of evergreen conifer species which retain their needles throughout the year and, therefore, intercept snow efficiently throughout the winter. Snow interception and sublimation in a canopy have been identified as important hydrological processes with complex mass and energy exchanges. The processes affecting a...