Development of a spatial synoptic classification scheme for western Europe

This paper presents a new spatial air-mass climatology for western Europe (WE) based upon the analysis of daily data for 48 climate stations for the period 1974-2000. Referred to as the spatial synoptic classification for western Europe (SSCWE), the new air-mass climatology not only facilitates the examination of both spatial and temporal climate variations but also provides, for the first time, a physically based synoptic classification for a wide variety of applications at the western European scale. The SSCWE is based on the philosophy of the spatial synoptic classification (SSC), which was first introduced to the synoptic climatological community in the mid-1990s and later refined as the SSC2 for application across North America. As for the SSC2, establishing the physical characteristics for six generic air masses is the basis of the SSCWE. In this paper, the procedures for identifying air-mass characteristics are described and an analysis of the spatial and temporal variation of the six generic air-mass types across western Europe is presented. Copyright (c) 2007 Royal Meteorological Society.