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Background information

Context The tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) transmits vector-borne diseases, such as dengue and chikungunya. Environmental factors such as temperature and rainfall impact the survival chance and seasonal activity of the tiger mosquito which is a serious threat for human health in Europe.

Definition The climatic suitability index for the presence of the tiger mosquito is determined by annual rainfall, summer temperatures and January temperatures. For annual rainfall, the suitability is zero when rainfall is lower than 450 mm, maximum suitability is reached when the annual rainfall is higher than 800 mm. For summer temperatures, the suitability is zero when temperatures are lower than 15 °C and higher than 30 °C, and maximum between 20 °C and 25 °C. For January temperatures, the suitability is zero when temperatures are lower than - 1°C and maximum when temperatures are higher than 3 °C.

Data Sources The tiger mosquito suitability statistics are calculated using bias-adjusted EURO-CORDEX data for two CMIP5 scenarios with different possible future greenhouse gas emissions: RCP4.5 (medium emissions) and RCP8.5 (high emissions). The data covers the period 1971 to 2099 and statistics are averaged for 30 years in overlapping time periods set 10 years apart. Finally, the time series are averaged for the model ensemble.

Understand A suitability index of 0 indicates that an area is not suitable (has no favourable environmental conditions) for tiger mosquito presence whereas an area with an index of 100 is totally suitable.

Supporting Information The data was collated on behalf of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). Further information about this index can be found in the C3S documentation resources in the Climate Data Store.


Visualisation and Navigation The climatic suitability index for the tiger mosquito is presented for two CMIP5 scenarios: RCP4.5 with medium greenhouse gas emissions and RCP8.5 with high greenhouse gas emissions.

Statistics for the climatic suitability index of the tiger mosquito are also available via the "Explore in Detail" button as national, sub-national and trans-national area-means for which time series data can be plotted.

Climatic suitability for the tiger mosquito - suitability index

Content in the European Climate Data Explorer pages is delivered by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) implemented by ECMWF.

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