BALTEX (the Baltic Sea Experiment) was launched in 1992 as a Continental-scale Experiment (CSE) of the Global Energy and Water Exchanges Project (GEWEX) within the World Climate Research Program (WCRP). The research focus of BALTEX was primarily on the hydrological cycle and the exchange of energy between the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth. The study region of BALTEX is the Baltic Sea and its huge catchment region.
Hydrological data relevant to BALTEX were collected at the BALTEX Hydrological Data Center (BHDC) operating at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) since it’s inception in 1995. Until 2015 BHDC collected data of daily and monthly discharges of around 600 stations in the Baltic Sea region. In 2015, the BALTEX Hydrological Dataset moved from SMHI to GRDC in order to ensure sustainable operation and regular updates as an integral part of the Global Runoff Database. By release and on behalf of the National Hydrological Services, the former BALTEX stations and flow data are integrated in the Global Runoff Database.
BALTEX ended in June 2013 after 20 years of successful activity. Baltic Earth inherits the scientific legacy and researcher network of BALTEX and builds on the infrastructure (secretariat, conferences, publication series) and international scientific network of BALTEX (people and institutions). However, Baltic Earth represents a new, more holistic perspective on the Baltic Sea region, encompassing processes in the atmosphere, on land and in the sea, as well as processes evoked by and feeding back on human activity.
Since the integration of the BALTEX database into GRDC in 2015, the curation and update of the BALTEX dataset is embedded in the regular work of GRDC. With this approach, the number of stations in the Baltic Sea catchment area of the BALTEX dataset was expanded by 126 stations, receiving regular, up-to-date time series updates.
An overview about the BALTEX dataset and its extension can be found in the following report:
Mischel SA, Zentis C and Plessow H (2025) The BALTEX dataset of the Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC): a dataset of river discharge draining into the Baltic Sea. Front. Environ. Sci. 13:1599188. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2025.1599188
Project website:
Preview of stations:
You can access the data by downloading the station catalogue below, copy the GRDC station name(s) or number(s) and paste them into the field “Station Name or Number” in the filter menu of the data portal. A step by step guide is provided in our the Navigation guide for GRDC data portal (available in English and Spanish). The summary statistics provide an additional overview about the dataset.
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| Station Catalogue (XLSX, 61KB) |
| Summary Statistics by WMO region (PDF, 12KB) |
| Summary Statistics by Country (PDF, 14KB) |
| Summary Statistics by WMO basin (PDF, 13KB) |