The Baltic Sea Experiment (BALTEX) is a long-term multi-national project to study coupled hydrological processes between complicated terrain, sea and ice and the atmospheric circulation to determine the energy and water budgets of the Baltic Sea and relatedriver basins. BALTEX includes the entire Baltic Sea water catchment, an area covering about 2 million square kilometers and the Baltic Sea itself. Almost all the countries whose rivers drain into the Baltic Sea have either formed national committees or nominated asectional representative for this project.
Major emphasis in BALTEX is given to a thorough understanding of all those hydrological processes that are to be parameterized in global and limited area models. The time schedule includes a preparatory phase (1994-1996) and a first major research phase, with very intensive observations and data analyses (1997-2000). It is then followed by a main research phase with continuing numerical and field studies.
