EGU21-7747, updated on 09 Jan 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-7747
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Towards a definition of Essential Mountain Climate Variables

James Thornton1,2, Elisa Palazzi3, Nicholas Pepin4, Paolo Cristofanelli3, Richard Essery5, Sven Kotlarski6, Gregory Giuliani7,8, Yaniss Guigoz7,8, Aino Kulonen1, Xiaofeng Li9,10, David Pritchard9, Hayley Fowler9, Christophe Randin11, Maria Shahgedanova12, Martin Steinbacher13, Marc Zebisch14, and Carolina Adler1
James Thornton et al.
  • 1Mountain Research Initiative, University of Bern, Switzerland (james.thornton@unibe.ch)
  • 2Centre for Hydrogeology and Geothermics, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
  • 3Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, National Research Council, Italy
  • 4School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences, University of Portsmouth, UK
  • 5School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, UK
  • 6Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, Switzerland
  • 7Institute for Environmental Sciences/enviroSPACE, University of Geneva, Switzerland
  • 8GRID-Geneva, Science Division, UN Environment Programme, Geneva
  • 9School of Engineering, University of Newcastle, UK
  • 10Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Climate Change and Natural Disaster Studies, Sun Yat-sen University, China
  • 11Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
  • 12Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, UK
  • 13Air Pollution / Environmental Technology, EMPA, Switzerland
  • 14Institute for Earth Observation, Eurac Research, Italy

Numerous applications, including generating future predictions via numerical modelling, establishing appropriate policy instruments, and effectively tracking progress against them, require the multitude of complex processes and interactions operating in rapidly changing mountainous environmental systems to be well monitored and understood. At present, however, not only are environmental available data pertaining to mountains often severely limited, but interdisciplinary consensus regarding which variables should be considered absolute observation priorities remains lacking. In this context,  the concept of so-called Essential Mountain Climate Variables (EMCVs) is introduced as a potential means to identify critical observation priorities and thereby ameliorate the situation. Following a brief overview of the most critical aspects of ongoing and expected future climate-driven change in various key mountain system components (i.e. the atmosphere, cryosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere), a preliminary list of corresponding potential EMCVs – ranked according to perceived importance – is proposed. Interestingly, several of these variables do not currently feature amongst the globally relevant Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) curated by GCOS, suggesting this mountain-specific approach is indeed well justified. Thereafter, both established and emerging possibilities to measure, generate, and apply EMCVs are summarised. Finally, future activities that must be undertaken if the concept is eventually to be formalized and widely applied are recommended.

How to cite: Thornton, J., Palazzi, E., Pepin, N., Cristofanelli, P., Essery, R., Kotlarski, S., Giuliani, G., Guigoz, Y., Kulonen, A., Li, X., Pritchard, D., Fowler, H., Randin, C., Shahgedanova, M., Steinbacher, M., Zebisch, M., and Adler, C.: Towards a definition of Essential Mountain Climate Variables, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-7747, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-7747, 2021.

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