Thank you for a fruitful and inspiring Workshop!

Aftermath page here!!!

Scope

The workshop is a follow-up to the regional climate modelling workshops held in Lund, Sweden in 2004 and 2009. Research on regional climate modelling has remarkably expanded during the last few years. The aim of the Workshop is to review the overall and specific developments and progress in regional climate modelling over the last five years, to discuss pertinent open issues and challenges, and to provide input for new developments on the field. The meeting will cover a wide range of regional climate related topics, from basic modelling research on numerics, resolution and parameterisation to model evaluation and relevant observations, ensembles and applications. The workshop will also provide opportunities for working meetings for networks and projects. The workshop is jointly organised by Lund University, SMHI, DMI, HZG and the International Baltic Earth Secretariat.

Invited and contributed papers will be presented in plenary complimented by extended poster sessions. Workshop language will be English.

Topics

Regional Climate and Earth System Models

Coupled modelling at regional scales is advancing, with RCMs evolving to coupled models of atmosphere-ocean-sea ice, climate-vegetation, climate-biogeochemistry and aerosols. How can they advance research on climate feedback at regional scales? Development and comparison of approaches to modelling regional climate including global models with regional refinement (high resolution and variable resolution global models) is also considered under this topic.

Very-high-resolution RCMs

The resolution of RCMs continues to increase. More models are now being applied at resolutions of 5-10 km, and some down to 1-2 km. This requires adaptation and new developments in dynamics and physical parameterizations, including non-hydrostatic models. It also involves the development and use of regional climate models and statistical downscaling approaches for local-scale investigations, e.g. urban areas.

Challenges to RCM evaluation and application

Developing RCMs with new components and higher resolution imply new model evaluation issues, such as the need for very-high-resolution evaluation data. Relevant developments in advanced statistics, hybrid downscaling approaches, nudging techniques, performance-based metrics and comprehensive added value aspects are fundamental issues to be explored under this topic. In addition to better insight to model performance, evaluation can also enable bias corrections in scenario analysis and provision.

RCM Ensembles

Coordinated experimentation with RCMs is advancing. This brings about many pertinent issues. What is the best design for a regional climate model ensemble? What determines the choice of GCMs and RCMs? Is weighting of ensemble members feasible? Can we account for model independence? Does the ensemble variance provide a good estimate of ‘uncertainty‘ in the regional climate projections? Under this topic, use of RCMs in seasonal-to-decadal prediction and lessons learnt from present and former coordinated studies (e.g. CORDEX) are timely.