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Mountain observatories around the world are unique sites for monitoring and investigating variations, trends, forcings and feedbacks in the climate system, which are of utmost interest for understanding global climate change. From the small number of these research platforms, Sonnblick Observatory (Austrian Alps) stands out because of its long time series dating back to 1886 at an elevation of 3,100 m a.s.l. The paper describes the contribution of mountain observatories to climatology by the example of Sonnblick Observatory. The observatory's scientific evolution is summarised, starting from the original idea of upper air atmospheric measurements to its recent role as an atmospheric background station and interdisciplinary research site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seven synoptic patterns responsible for heavy precipitation in Austria were identified with a trajectory clustering method. Back trajectories at different levels, at different times during each day, and from different locations in Austria were utilised together with one potential vorticity value. In addition, seven regions within Austria with similar daily precipitation were identified. The response of heavy precipitation in each of these regions to the synoptic patterns was studied. The results correspond to the synoptic experience and reflect known meteorological situations, such as southerly and northerly Stau or the Vb pattern. The analyses are based on the 15-year re-analysis of the ECMWF (1979–1993), used to calculate the back trajectories, and daily precipitation sums of 131 climate stations in Austria. This paves the way to future applications in climate change research, as the necessary input data are also available from global climate models. The clustering was performed with a promising new procedure, a combination of hierarchical and iterative (K-means) clustering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]