Long-term variability of drought indices in the Czech Lands and effects of external forcings and large-scale climate variability modes

While a considerable number of records document the temporal variability of droughts for central Europe, the understanding of its underlying causes remains limited. In this contribution, time series of three drought indices (Standardized Precipitation Index – SPI; Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index – SPEI; Palmer Drought Severity Index – PDSI) are analyzed with regard to mid- to long-term drought variability in the Czech Lands and its potential links to external forcings and internal climate variability modes over the 1501–2006 period. Employing instrumental and proxy-based data characterizing the external climate forcings (solar and volcanic activity, greenhouse gases) in parallel with series representing the activity of selected climate variability modes (El Niño–Southern Oscillation – ENSO; Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation – AMO; Pacific Decadal Oscillation – PDO; North Atlantic Oscillation – NAO), regression and wavelet analyses were deployed to identify and quantify the temporal variability patterns of drought indices and similarity between individual signals. Aside from a strong connection to the NAO, temperatures in the AMO and (particularly) PDO regions were disclosed as one of the possible drivers of inter-decadal variability in the Czech drought regime. Colder and wetter episodes were found to coincide with increased volcanic activity, especially in summer, while no clear signature of solar activity was found. In addition to identification of the links themselves, their temporal stability and structure of their shared periodicities were investigated. The oscillations at periods of approximately 60–100 years were found to be potentially relevant in establishing the teleconnections affecting the long-term variability of central European droughts.</p

Activities of the state and private cartography in the Czech Republic

Artykuł zawiera informacje na temat współczesnej działalności kartograficznej w sektorze państwowym i prywatnym na terenie Republiki Czeskiej. Przedmiotem opisu są obecnie stosowane i wykorzystywane metody przedstawień kartograficznych, używane bazy danych, strony internetowe udostępniające informacje kartograficzne, także w dostępie on-line, realizowane projekty kartograficzne i inne usługi związane z udostępnianiem oraz korzystaniem z map, a także informacji zawartych w różnych bazach danych.The paper shows present state and private cartographic activity in the Czech Republic. There are described currently used methods of cartographic presentations, digital databases, internet pages and sources containing cartographical information, on-line access, cartographical projects and other mapping services

An analysis of the spatial distribution of approximate 8 years periodicity in NCEP/NCAR and ERA-40 temperature fields

In the presented paper, we describe an analysis of spatial patterns of the approximate 8 years cycle identified in the NCEP/NCAR and ERA-40 reanalyzed temperature series. The temperature series are examined by the pseudo-2D wavelet transform (p2D-WT) at 17 geopotential levels, ranging from 1000 hPa to 10 hPa. The results differ significantly for the NCEP/NCAR and for the ERA-40 temperature series. For the NCEP/NCAR dataset, oscillation of about 8 years is distinct over large areas at almost every analyzed level. At lower heights, the regions with significant presence of the periodicity are less compact and pronounced than at higher geopotential levels. The occurrence of the analyzed period is generally strongest in the equatorial and tropical areas. For the ERA-40 dataset, the approximate 8 years cycle is detected in substantially fewer grid points and the spatial patterns generally do not conform to the analysis of NCEP/NCAR series. These results indicate that a frequency analysis of the reanalysis datasets should only be interpreted after careful discussion and that the reliability (in the sense of frequency characteristics) of the reanalyzed temperature series still needs to be studied

Possible relation between the Müller’s map of Bohemia and the First Military Survey — A case study of the Kladno region

The Müller’s map of Bohemia originated in the years 1712 till 1718 as the result of the first systematic topographic mapping of the Czech lands. This map served as a base for the First Military Survey realized 1763–1787 on the area of the whole Habsburg Empire. The paper presents a study of relations between the Müller’s map of Bohemia and the maps from the First Military Survey from the region near the town Kladno in the Central Bohemia. The sections of the above mentioned old maps in electronic form have been used for accuracy analysis of selected points located within the test area. The same area has been investigated on the present topographic map of the Czech Republic (scale: 1:25 000). The centres of 39 settlements have been identified in all compared maps and their rectangular plane co-ordinates have been recorded. For the analysis, affine transformation was applied on the point coordinates. The presented results may contribute to the discussion on the positional accuracy of these old maps and on the way our predecessors used for mapping of the Czech Lands in the 18th century