A spatially explicit and temporally highly resolved analysis of variations in fog occurrence over Europe

Fog plays a major role in many ecological aspects and it influences human life in various ways. In this study, a temporally highly resolved and spatially explicit analysis of variations in fog occurrence was conducted for Europe and links to general weather conditions were investigated. To this end, a high-resolution fog product based on Meteosat Second Generation data was developed. Characteristic fog distributions were identified by applying a Self Organizing Map approach to the dataset. It was found that the resulting fog patterns are primarily determined by terrain characteristics. Simultaneous occurrences between these patterns and the predominant general weather situations were analyzed. The results show that the general weather situations can be categorized into three main groups, each responsible for the formation of a different group of fog patterns. Additionally, distinct regional differences could be identified in the diurnal and annual fog frequency cycles and the derived region-specific frequency variations were used to draw conclusions about the fog types prevailing in these regions.