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Regional Climate Modelling

WCRP Task Force on Regional Climate Downscaling (TF-RCD)
Relevant Meetings
Using regional data from climate models
IPCC TGICA Guidelines on Regionalisation
Other relevant information
References

WCRP Task Force on Regional Climate Downscaling (TF-RCD)

The WCRP Task Force on Regional Climate Downscaling (TF-RCD) was created in 2008 by WCRP through the Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM).

- Membership (co-Chairs: F. Giorgi, C. Jones)

- Terms of Reference:

1. Develop a framework to evaluate RCD techniques for use in downscaling global climate projections. Such a framework would be conceptually similar to the successful coupled model intercomparisons undertaken by the WGCM, and would have the goal of quantifying the performance of RCM techniques and assessing their relative merits.

2. Foster an international coordinated effort to develop improved downscaling techniques and to provide feedback to the global climate modelling community. A specific objective will be to produce improved multi-model RCD-based high-resolution climate information over regions worldwide for input to impact/adaptation work and to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.

3. Promote greater interactions between climate modelers, downscalers and end-users to better support impact/adaptation activities and to better communicate the scientific uncertainty inherent in climate projections and downscaled products. An important theme in this activity will be to promote greater involvement of scientists from developing countries.

- Documents

Relevant Meetings

2nd Lund Regional-scale Climate Modelling Workshop: 21st Century Challenges in Regional Climate Modelling, 4-8 May 2009 - Lund, Sweden
Workshop on Evaluating and Improving Regional Climate Projections, 11-13 February 2009 - Toulouse, France (report, presentations).

Using regional data from climate models

The increased confidence in attribution of global scale climate change to human induced greenhouse emissions, and the expectation that such changes will increase in future, has lead to an increased demand in predictions of regional climate change to guide adaptation. Although there is some confidence in the large scale patterns of changes in some parameters, the skill in regional prediction is much more limited and indeed difficult to assess, given that we do not have data for a selection of different climates against which to test models. Much research is being done to improve model predictions, but progress is likely to be slow. In the meantime, WCRP recognises that governments and business are faced with making decisions now, and require the best available climate advice today. Despite their limitations, climate models provide the most promising means of providing information on climate change, and WCRP has encouraged making data available from climate predictions to guide decisions, provided the limitations of such predictions are made clear. This will include assessments of the ability of the models used to predict current climate, and the range of predictions from as large a number of different models as possible.

IPCC TGICA Guidelines on Regionalisation

These documents are part of the IPCC "Supporting Material" of the IPCC Data Distribution Centre (DDC) and have been prepared at the request of the Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for Impacts and Climate Analysis (TGICA). Note that these documents have not been subject to the formal intergovernmental IPCC review process. Please follow this link for these and other documents providing technical guidance or summarising information held on the IPCC DDC.

General Guidelines on the use of Scenario Data for Climate Impact and Adaptation Assessment (2007)

Guidelines for Use of Climate Scenarios Developed from Statistical Downscaling Methods (2004)

Guidelines for Use of Climate Scenarios Developed from Regional Climate Model Experiments (2003)

Other relevant information

Climate Mapper Tool
USAID, NASA, the Institute for the Application of Geospatial Technology (IAGT), the University of Colorado, and CATHALAC announce the beta release of the Climate Mapper tool for SERVIR-the Regional Visualization and Monitoring System. The Climate Mapper makes the results of climate change models accessible to a broad user community. With the Climate Mapper, users can assess climate change projections for the 2030s and 2050s against 3D visualizations of landscape. This should enhance vulnerability assessments as development planners consider adaptation strategies for projects.

References

Developing Know-How on Regional Climate Change Research
Rauscher, S. A., C. Covey, A. Henderson-Sellers, and F. Giorgi, Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc., DOI: 10.1175/2008BAMS2665.1, 2009.

Evaluating and Improving Regional Climate Projections
Report of the Workshop on Evaluating and Imporving Regional Climate Projections, F. Giorgi,.2009

The Regional Climate Change Hyper-Matrix Framework
Giorgi, F., N. S. Diffenbaugh, X. J. Gao, E. Coppola, S. K. Dahs, O. Frumento, S. A. Rauscher, A. Remedio, I. Seidou Sanda, A. Steiner, B. Sylla, and A. S. Zakey, EOS, 89, No. 45, 2008.

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last updated Thu, Jun 25, 2009 by Anna Pirani