A high resolution temperature climatology for the Greater Alpine Region (GAR)

The Greater Alpine Region (the GAR) covering the area between 4-19°E and 43-50°N and an altitude range between 0 and more than 4000 m asl. offers a challenging climate worth to be studied in any detail. However, it is surprising that up to now no comprehensive Alpine Temperature Climatology covering the whole region is existing. To overcome this deficiency as a first step we want to produce monthly temperature maps for this region in spatial resolution as high as possible. The period under investigation will be 1961-1990. In this paper we will describe the first steps of our initiative as well as the further plans.