Köppen's climate classification map for Brazil

作者：Clayton Alcarde Álvares, José Luiz Stape, Paulo César Sentelhas, José Leonardo de Moraes Gonçalves, Gerd Sparovek · 发表于：Meteorologische Zeitschrift · 年份：2013 · DOI：10.1127/0941-2948/2013/0507 · 被引用次数：12192 · 研究领域：Environmental and biological studies、Geography and Environmental Studies、Remote Sensing in Agriculture

Köppen's climate classification remains the most widely used system by geographical and climatological societies across the world, with well recognized simple rules and climate symbol letters. In Brazil, climatology has been studied for more than 140 years, and among the many proposed methods Köppen's system remains as the most utilized. Considering Köppen's climate classification importance for Brazil (geography, biology, ecology, meteorology, hydrology, agronomy, forestry and environmental sciences), we developed a geographical information system to identify Köppen's climate types based on monthly temperature and rainfall data from 2,950 weather stations. Temperature maps were spatially described using multivariate equations that took into account the geographical coordinates and altitude; and the map resolution (100 m) was similar to the digital elevation model derived from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Patterns of rainfall were interpolated using kriging, with the same resolution of temperature maps. The final climate map obtained for Brazil (851,487,700 ha) has a high spatial resolution (1 ha) which allows to observe the climatic variations at the landscape level. The results are presented as maps, graphs, diagrams and tables, allowing users to interpret the occurrence of climate types in Brazil. The zones and climate types are referenced to the most important mountains, plateaus and depressions, geographical landmarks, rivers and watersheds and major cities across t...