The Alpine Experiment

The Alpine Experiment (ALPEX) sought to gain more information about the influence of mountains on global, regional, and local weather patterns. It was sponsored by the Global Atmospheric Research Programme (GARP), then planned and implemented by a number of international organizations. The experiment was conducted primarily in the Alpine mountain ranges of Europe and lasted less than one year; it focused on circulations due to wind forcing, including storm surges in the Adriatic and Western Mediterranean Seas. It incorporated radiosonde and aircraft observations, radar, station observations (including pressure), buoy and tide information in the Mediterranean, and many other special observations (including biological and pollution observations). The archive contains information primarily from the "high-intensity" observing period conducted during the early spring of 1982.