Meteorology
Meteorology applies physical and mathematical methods to understand and forecast the processes that determine our weather. Weather forecasting is a highly complex process where sensing technology and high performance computing play an as important role as the laws of Physics and chemistry. Weather data have to be collected, quality controlled and assimilated with a numerical weather prediction model. The forecasts need to be systematically validated to get guidance for further improvements.
Since its foundation the Institute for Meteorology and Geophysics has been active in mountain meteorology due to its geographical vicinity to the Alps. The activities of the IMGW in this area range from exploration of sink holes, where extremely cold temperatures can develop, to objective analysis over complex terrain and to studies about the change of snow cover duration in a changing climate. In the past years a new research focus on observation and numerical simulation of complex flows over mountains has been established.
Climatology has been regarded as a subdiscipline of Meteorology for quite some time and early climate classifications refer to temperature and precipitation as main factors determine regional climate. Climate parameters such as the occurence of certain plants, the length of the vegetation period as well as the date of flower blossoms already indicate the multidisciplinary character of climatology. Today climatology or climate research is often referred to as geobiosphere dynamics. It describes the complex interrelations between climate subsystems such as atmosphere, land, oceans and biosphere. Despite the considerable expansion of the field Meteorology remains central not least because the atmosphere is the most important transport medium of the climate system.
The IMGW has two research groups covering Meteorology:
General Meteorology und Climatology
