ON SIMILARITY LAWS IN REGIONAL CLIMATOLOGY

Starting with a linear theory of the flow around and over mountains a similarity hypothesis of the wind field over complex terrain is formulated and tested by simulations with the numerical mesoscale model KAMM (Karlsruhe Atmospheric Mesoscale Model) and applied to observations of the orographically induced phenomenon ''Moehlin-Jet'', which were performed and analysed by Dutsch (1985). Because this hypothesis combines parameters describing the state of the large scale flow with form parameters of the orography it can be used to regionalize large scale climatological informations to smaller scales. It allows to generalize observations of typical mesoscale phenomena like channeling in broad valleys or orographically induced jet-like currents.