High resolution maps of climatological parameters for analyzing the impacts of climatic changes on Swiss forests

<p>Assessing the impacts of climatic changes on forests requires the analysis of actual climatology within the forested area. In mountainous areas, climatological indices vary markedly with the micro-relief, i.e. with altitude, slope, and aspect. Consequently, when modelling potential shifts of altitudinal belts in mountainous areas due to climatic changes, maps with a high spatial resolution of the underlying climatological indices are fundamental. Here we present a set of maps of climatological indices with a spatial resolution of 25 by 25 m. The presented dataset consists of maps of the following parameters: average daily temperature high and low in January, April, July, and October as well as of the year; seasonal and annual thermal continentality; first and last freezing day; frost-free vegetation period; relative air humidity; solar radiation; and foehn conditions. The parameters represented in the maps have been selected in a knowledge engineering approach. The maps show the climatology of the periods 1961-1990 and 1981-2010. The data can be used for statistical analyses of forest climatology, for developing tree distribution models, and for assessing the impacts of climatic changes on Swiss forests.</p>