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aconMeteorologische Zeitschrift, Vol. 15, No. 3, 259-263 (June 2006) c by Gebrüder Borntraeger 2006

Article

World Map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification updated
M ARKUS KOTTEK1 , J ÜRGEN G RIESER2 , C HRISTOPH B ECK2 , B RUNO RUDOLF2 and F RANZ RUBEL∗1
1 Biometeorology 2 Global

Group, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Vienna, Austria Precipitation Climatology Centre,Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach, Germany

(Manuscript received December 19, 2005; in revised form February 28, 2006; accepted April 10, 2006)

Abstract The most frequently used climate classification map is that of Wladimir Köppen, presented in its latest version 1961 by Rudolf Geiger. A huge number of climate studies and subsequent publications adopted this or a former release of theKöppen-Geiger map. While the climate classification concept has been widely applied to a broad range of topics in climate and climate change research as well as in physical geography, hydrology, agriculture, biology and educational aspects, a well-documented update of the world climate classification map is still missing. Based on recent data sets from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University ofEast Anglia and the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) at the German Weather Service, we present here a new digital Köppen-Geiger world map on climate classification, valid for the second half of the 20th century. Zusammenfassung Die am häufigsten verwendete Klimaklassifikationskarte ist jene von Wladimir Köppen, die in der letzten Auflage von Rudolf Geiger aus dem Jahr 1961 vorliegt. Seitherbildeten viele Klimabücher und Fachartikel diese oder eine frühere Ausgabe der Köppen-Geiger Karte ab. Obwohl das Schema der Klimaklassifikation in vielen Forschungsgebieten wie Klima und Klimaänderung aber auch physikalische Geographie, Hydrologie, Landwirtschaftsforschung, Biologie und Ausbildung zum Einsatz kommt, fehlt bis heute eine gut dokumentierte Aktualisierung der Köppen-GeigerKlimakarte. Basierend auf neuesten Datensätzen des Climatic Research Unit (CRU) der Universität von East Anglia und des Weltzentrums für Niederschlagsklimatologie (WZN) am Deutschen Wetterdienst präsentieren wir hier eine neue digitale Köppen-Geiger Weltkarte für die zweite Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts.

1

Introduction

The first quantitative classification of world climates was presented by the Germanscientist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1900; it has been available as world map updated 1954 and 1961 by Rudolf Geiger (1894–1981). Many of the early German publications (KÖPPEN, 1900; G EIGER 1954, 1957) from this area are not easily accessible today; here we refer to the comprehensive summaries on this topic given by, e.g., H ANTEL (1989) or E SSENWANGER (2001). Köppen was trained as a plantphysiologist and realised that plants are indicators for many climatic elements. His effective classification was constructed on the basis of five vegetation groups determined by the French botanist De Candolle referring to the climate zones of the ancient Greeks (S ANDERSON, 1999) The five vegetation groups of Köppen distinguish between plants of the equatorial zone (A), the arid zone (B), the warmtemperate zone (C), the snow zone (D) and the polar zone (E). A second letter in the classification consid∗ Corresponding

author: Franz Rubel, Biometeorology Group, Department of Natural Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, 1210 Vienna, Austria, e-mail: franz.rubel@vu-wien.ac.at

ers the precipitation (e.g. Df for snow and fully humid), a third letter the air temperature (e.g.Dfc for snow, fully humid with cool summer). Although various authors published enhanced Köppen classifications or developed new classifications, the climate classification originally developed by Köppen (here referred to as Köppen-Geiger classification) is still the most frequently used climate classification. Many textbooks on climatology reproduce a world map of Köppen-Geiger climate classes, due...