Experiment protocol RCMs is published!

The CORDEX experiment design for dynamical downscaling of CMIP6 is now published!

The Second Order Draft (SOD) of the CORDEX experiment design (protocol hereafter) for dynamical downscaling of CMIP6 was shared with the CORDEX community in February 2021. We are very grateful to all who have read the SOD in detail and provided comments. The final version of the new CORDEX-CMIP6 protocol is ready and hereby we share it with the CORDEX community. In order to keep the process of developing the CORDEX protocol transparent and open for the community, here, the CORDEX Science Advisory Team (SAT) provides response to the comments on the SOD and how they have been addressed in the final version.

Please find the CORDEX-CMIP6 protocol here and the CORDEX SAT responses to the SOD comments here.

Future Scientific Challenges for CORDEX; the White Paper

The Future Scientific Challenges for CORDEX, the White Paper, is now published!

The CORDEX Science Advisory Team (SAT) has developed a White Paper with the purpose to point out scientific challenges in regional climat modelling for bettter informed decision making process in regions and setting the basis for the CORDEX science plan.

The White Paper has also been published as a CORDEX newsletter. If you want to subscribe to our newsletters, please go here.

WCRP CORDEX Report 2020

During 2020 a lot of activites, meetings, publications and workshops was held within the CORDEX community. It is hightlights from the domain reports, development of the CORDEX White Paper, progress within the Flagship Pilot Studies, First Order Draft for the CORDEX experimental design for dynamical downscaling of CMIP6 and much more:

WCRP CORDEX Report 2020.

The second order draft (SOD) of the CORDEX experiment design for dynamical downscaling of CMIP6

The First Order Draft (FOD) of the CORDEX experiment design (protocol hereafter) for dynamical downscaling of CMIP6 was shared with the CORDEX community in June 2020. We are very grateful to all who have read the protocol in detail and provided comments. The Second Order Draft (SOD) of the new CORDEX protocol is ready and we now want to share it with the CORDEX community for comments. In order to keep the process of developing the CORDEX protocol transparent and open for the community, the CORDEX Science Advisory Team (SAT) here provides responses to the comments on the FOD and how they have been addressed in the SOD.

Please find the SOD here and the CORDEX SAT responses to the FOD comments here.

You can leave your comments on the SOD in this Google form.

If you can´t access Google please let us know and we will send you an excel spreadsheet for your comments. ipoc@cordex.org

The deadline for comments is Friday 26th February.

The CORDEX Southeast Asia Outreach and Capacity Building Workshop

CORDEX Southeast Asia organized an outreach and capacity building workshop online 17 – 19 November 2020. Almost 200 participants attended the sessions. Most participants came from the Southeast Asian countries although some participants outside the region also participated including Australia, United States of America and South Asian countries.

The workshop consisted of one session each day during the three days. It was conducted without any technical issues, even though this was the first time it was held online and with such a large number of participants.

Outcome/Scientific highlights

Through this workshop the organizers managed to outreach CORDEX Southeast Asia and its achievements. The workshop highlighted the Southeast Asia Regional Climate Change Information System (SARCCIS), which serves as a one‑stop datacenter that:

  1. a) freely disseminates high‑resolution, multi‑model and multi‑scenarios simulated data;
  2. b) provides guidance on data usage and reliability, including uncertainty and;
  3. c) conducts trainings to users on how to access, analyze and interpret the data

Another highlight was the progress on the 5 km simulations of CORDEX SEA over a number of key regions in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, the workshop provided capacity building/development on data retrieval, application and analysis that is important for the future work within this region.

The presentations

The first day was an introduction to CORDEX and CORDEX Data Applications in Southeast Asia also including a welcoming remark from Linda Stevenson from the Asian Pacific Network (APN).  Fredolin Tangang gave a presentation of CORDEX-SEA: High-resolution and multi-model climate change projections in Southeast Asia and Iréne Lake introduced the CORDEX programme and its importance. Presenters from the different Southeast Asian countries provided useful demonstrations of CORDEX data applications in their countries. There was time for questions and discussions at the end of each day.

The second session included, besides the presentation on SARCCIS, three technical presentations on CORDEX Data Retrieval, Analysis and Applications. The presenters from Sweden and South Africa gave an excellent overview of how to download and use CORDEX data.  The presentations provided useful information on technical issues related to data retrieval and CORDEX data application, especially for data users community from Southeast Asia.

The final day was dedicated to the Fourth Workshop of the Second Phase of Southeast Asia Regional Climate Downscaling (SEACLID)/CORDEX Southeast Asia Workshop where each Southeast Asian country presented their progress on the 5 km x 5 km regional climate downscaling on a number of subdomains within CORDEX Southeast Asia.

Future plans

There was also a discussion on how to move forward, including further coordination on the 5 km x 5 km simulations, coordinated analyses of simulated outputs, data archiving in SARCCIS, documentation of the results and a follow up workshop is scheduled for the middle of 2021. If possible, this workshop will be held in-person.

The workshop website: http://www.rucore.ru.ac.th/cordex_outreach

Appreciated training on regional climate change projections in South Asia

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Met Office and CORDEX South Asia organized the training workshop Regional climate change projections: Climate change analysis using CORDEX regional climate models over South Asia, online during 12-14 October 2020 and 19-21 October 2020.

The training was part of an institutional capacity building approach with the intention to strengthen the knowledge and capabilities on how to access and analyze future climate change projections. Through dedicated hands-on exercises, resource persons from ICIMOD, the Met Office – UK, and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) – Pune, guided participants in using different open source tools to analyse and visualize climate change projections at different time scales for user-specified locations. The event brought together participants from four focus countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. The 25 participants, including 8 women, were primarily from national hydro-meteorological agencies.

Preparations and arrangement

The training that originally was planned to be held in-person was scaled down due to the COVID-19 pandemic to meet the practicalities of an online training.

Good preparations and great effort ensured that the training proceeded as smoothly as possible, for instance all the participants installed the required software before the training commenced. The virtual platform allowed participants to engage and interact with each other. The organizers maintained a daily log for all participants, which facilitated the communication between the organizers and the participants and enabled quick support when needed. Additionally, the organizers recorded the training and made them available on the workshop platform, enabling participants to view and review the sessions.

Outcome

Through this training the participants improved their understanding of climate change science and projection and have learnt how to access and analyze CORDEX datasets using R software. They also practiced how to understand and interpret the characteristics of climate change data and analysis in a ‘hands-on’ fashion in combination with theoretical sessions. The participants found the sessions on how to use R to analyze and visualize CORDEX datasets particularly useful, and were also provided with customized R scripts for future use.

This was a very technical training and there were some challenges, mostly due to problems with internet connectivity in some countries. Despite that the general opinion was that the training was very valuable. For instance, one participant is planning to use CORDEX data for his PhD research on the impacts of climate change in the agricultural sector.

Future plans – more to come

This first training will be followed by a series of training activities during 2021 and 2022 to build the capacities of individuals at targeted institutions. The goal is to develop the individual skills and knowledge, and thus also the institutional capacity, to analyze climate projections and produce climate information for use in different sectoral applications. This initial online training has created a foundation and lead to useful insights for the future trainings. As a follow up to this training the organizers are planning to host a face to face training, using new analytical tools to analyze climate change projections over areas of interest and for specific applications when possible considering the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan is to organize hands-on exercises in-person with the participants.

Read more about the event at the workshop website:

https://www.icimod.org/event/regional-climate-change-projections-cordex/