Climate Projections

Overview

The ensembles of regional climate simulations are an important source of high-resolution information on climate change (IPCC, 2023, Diez-Sierra, 2022). They are used for many purposes – for instance to analyse future changes of extreme events, to derive adaptation strategies or to provide inputs for modelling activities as well as for impact studies.

For this purpose, ensembles are used to reduce the model related and scenario uncertainties. The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) initiative Coordinated Downscaling Experiment[1] (CORDEX) provides an international collaborative framework to generate coordinated multi-model ensembles for 14 continental-scale regions over the world (Gutowski et al., 2016). In addition, several Flagship Pilot Studies (FPS) have been endorsed to study specific research topics using high-resolution modelling across various institutions and regional models. The main features of coordinated activities (as within CORDEX and FPS studies) rely on:

• determine common goals and strategies (Gutowski et al., 2016)
• define a common experiment protocol[2]
• develop an optimized ensemble strategy given the available resources (Sobolowski et al, 2023)
• built open-source multi-model datasets published under ESGF nodes (as CORDEX and FPS on Convection)
• corroborate scientific knowledge through common evaluation strategies and multi-model studies

Members of the CLM Community contributed to many of such ensemble generation activities over the last two decades. The core task of the CLM Working Group “Climate Projections” (WG CP) is to coordinate the efforts of the community members regarding COSMO CLM and ICON CLM simulations within such activities and support the members with the production of the simulations. The main tasks of the WG CP are specifically:

• to decide on common strategies (model version, setup and nesting) to be used by the CCLM groups
• to discuss about the upcoming generation of GCMs and scenarios
• to organize the preparation of the required input data and post-processing activities
• to establish a joint simulation plan
• to represent the ideas, interests, and contributions from the CLM Community for instance within the CORDEX community

The working group is a platform for discussion and collaboration on these aspects, that are independent of the simulation domain, resolution, or period. Although the activities aim at climate change projections, other topics (e.g., decadal climate predictions or paleo-climate applications) might be covered as well.

In many cases, the activities affect other CLM WGs as well (as WG CRCS and WG SOILVEG for the FPS activities, WG SUPTECH for pre and post processing tools, WG EVAL for optimized configurations and sensitivity tests, WG MODEV for developments required by the experimental protocol). CP strives for a cooperation between the WGs to combine and foster the expertise of the CLM Community to achieve successful contributions to such activities.

Tasks

• Perform a coordinated set of simulations for the CORDEX CMIP6 "Balanced Ensemble Matrix" with ICON-CLM and COSMO-CLM
• Include transient aerosols in the simulations for COSMO-CLM and ICON CLM

Old Documents

This section contains documents related to the official CORDEX protocol (domains, archive design, etc.)

•  General instructions [64 Kb]

•  Archive design [80 Kb]

• Domain descriptions [1.1Mb]

• NARCCAP regional output archive [117 Kb]

• CMIP5 GCM Overview [122 Kb]

WG Meetings

Presentations

• Presentation General

• Presentation CMIP6

• Presentation EURO-CORDEX

• Presentation ReKliEs-De

Members

List of WG CP members🔑