Online Paper-Writing Workshop on Regional Climate Modeling

thumbnail of Group Photo CORDEX CAM-SAM Follow-up Online Workshop October 2021

There is a need to foster coordination of downscaling initiatives for the South America and Central America and the Caribbean regions (SAM/CAM), and to pursue capacity-building activities in the region. CORDEX has, by supporting this online workshop, participated in the creation of new teams in regional climate research, consisting of PhD students and early career researchers in the region. These networks have not existed before and thus the capacity within the region has been increased.

This workshop on 5-6 October 2021 was a continuation of the Online Paper-Writing Workshop on Regional Climate Modeling that CORDEX Central America and South America organized in November and December 2020. It was an online activity, which resulted effective for the activities planned in the workshop. The dynamic of the discussions was organized in presentations of each group and general discussions during plenary sessions.


Collaboration and networking in the SAM/CAM region

The overall goal of the first workshop was to promote collaborative activities and networking in the SAM/CAM regions with focus on specific regional climate phenomena with the aim of enhancing the capacity of PhD students and early career researchers in designing a research topic on regional climate modeling and documenting/writing the scientific results.

Planning submission of papers

The objectives for this year’s workshop were to discuss the advances and shortcomings of the work and to plan the submission of the papers. The 42 participants, 13 of them females, came mostly from the South and Central American region.

Before the follow up workshop the organizer sent out a survey to get feedback from the first workshop, to find out how the work had proceeded since then, what drawbacks the groups had encountered and what was most urgent to discuss during the workshop. Despite some drawbacks and issues with finding time for the project due to other commitments, the participants were generally pleased with the first workshop and the progress of their continued collaboration.

Feedback on eight upcoming papers

The main outcomes of this follow-up activity are enhanced collaboration of young scientists, discussion of scientific questions and methods, increased dialogue amongst scientists within the CAM/SAM regional community and enhanced use of CORDEX SAM and CAM data to climate change and impact studies in both regions.

Other outcomes are divulgation of CORDEX activities through the presentation of the main results of the paper in the RAUGM (Unión Geofísica Mexicana) 2021, Mexico, analysis of scientific topics and documenting results in scientific papers.

All 8 groups presented their work to each other and the organizers during the two-day follow up workshop, giving each other feedback. In the plenary sessions the participants discussed general issues and the organizers gave suggestions.

The titles of the papers are:

Paper 1: Extreme indices of temperature and precipitation in South America: trends and intercomparison of regional climate models.

Paper 2: Daily extreme indices of precipitation and temperature over the CAM domain: Trends and intercomparison of the CORDEX-CORE regional climate models.

Paper 3: Heat waves and fire in Pantanal: historical and future perspectives from CORDEX.

Paper 4: Extreme Climate indices associated with soy and maize yields over Latin America-Part I. An observational and modeling perspective.

Paper 5: Twenty-first century drought and heatwave projections in the CORDEX models over tropical South America.

Paper 6: The relationship between strong Caribbean Low-Level Jet events and vertically integrated moisture flux convergence, and its underlying mechanism.

Paper 7: Assessment of the RegCM4-CORDEX performance in simulating cyclones affecting the western South America coast.

Paper 8: Early-stages structure of extratropical cyclones over South America: RCM added value and future changes in a warmer planet.

 

A wish for more training workshops in the future

Some groups are at a writing stage and some have finalized the draft and revised it. The organizers have helped out with the revision and shared their expertise. The general idea is that the papers will be ready for submission by the end of 2021.

Almost 90% of the participants would like to have more training workshops in the future according to the answers from the survey. They also proposed many good suggestions for topics for future workshops!

 

More information at the workshop website

If you want to read more about the workshop, please have a look at the workshop website: http://www.cima.fcen.uba.ar/cordex-2020/

Workshop on Spatial and temporal climate change analysis using CORDEX regional climate models over South Asia for Bangladesh

About the training

The international Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) are in collaboration with the Met Office, UK’s national meteorological agency, the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)/COordinated Regional Climate Downscaling EXperiment (CORDEX), the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI); the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), organizing a three-day training for relevant professionals in Bangladesh on spatial and temporal analysis of climate change using CORDEX regional climate models over South Asia. Supported by the WCRP/CORDEX, this training will introduce climate change science and focus on bias calculation and selection of few representative models for a defined area of interest.

Objectives

The training aims to build knowledge and skills for analysing climate change projections using CORDEX regional climate model simulations for professionals in Bangladesh.

Expected outcomes

The training will help participants better understand climate model projections using 17 regional climate models, selecting representative models which best replicate historical climate cycles, and assessing spatial and temporal variability of present and future climate change over a defined area of interest.

In addition to gaining an overall understanding of climate modelling and downscaling, the participants will be able to:

  • Prepare CORDEX datasets in areas of interest and compare them with reference datasets
  • Visualize spatial and temporal variation in climate change projections
  • Interpret uncertainty in model results

Participation

In its current iteration, this training is being offered to professionals from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), and relevant universities in Bangladesh.

Resource persons

ICIMOD: Santosh Nepal, Saurav Pradhananga, Kabi Raj Khatiwada, Mandira Singh Shrestha

CORDEX: Iréne Lake

Centre for Climate Change Research, IITM – Pune: J Sanjay

Background

In October 2020, ICIMOD, Met Office, WCRP/CORDEX, SMHI, and IITM – Pune organized a training on Regional climate change projections: Climate change analysis using CORDEX regional climate models over South Asia for professionals from national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHS) in ARRCC focal countries— Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan under our Climate Services Initiative. Thereafter, a country-focused training for the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology and Tribhuvan University was held in Nepal in June 2021.

The December 2021 edition will focus on using CORDEX regional climate models for spatial and temporal analysis of climate change over South Asia for professionals from Bangladesh. The training will delve into how R-based tools can be used to analyse and visualize climate change projections spatially at different time scales.

 

Call for self-nominations to the committees for the next ICRC-CORDEX conference

Make a difference!

Be part of the scientific or the organizing committee for the next ICRCC-CORDEX conference!

The preparation of the next ICRC-CORDEX conference has just started and to ensure an effective process we need to set up a scientific committee and an overall organizing committee.

The conference will take place during 2023, tentatively late spring/early summer, and will probably be in a hybrid format, possibly featuring regional hubs, with both in-person and remote/on-line participation.

CORDEX aims to develop and provide detailed, regional climate information necessary for vulnerability, impact and adaptation studies at local and regional levels. CORDEX is working to meet the increasing need for reliable regional climate information communicated in a manner enabling effective impact and adaptation planning.

Some of the topics that will be highlighted at the next International Conference on Regional Climate (ICRC)- CORDEX will be extracted from the CORDEX White Papers and Science Plan, including further development of regional climate as well as impacts and applications.

The conference will also provide a platform for scientists and users from all parts of the globe to meet and advance capacity development, training and knowledge exchange as well as to build new and enhance existing co-operations.

The scientific committee will be tasked with proposing the main theme as well as details of the conference program; sessions, important partners/speakers, side events and more – all in close cooperation with the organizing committee.

The organizing committee will be in charge of the administration such as settling venue(s), handling website and registrations, contact with participants and speakers and close cooperation with the scientific committee.

Hope you want to contribute! Please don’t hesitate to contact the International Project Office for CORDEX (IPOC) at ipoc@cordex.org and volunteer for the scientific committee and/or the organizing committee.

Send your self-nomination to ipoc@cordex.org before 31 December 2021.

CORDEX Southeast Asia: Outreach and Capacity Building Workshop

The CORDEX Southeast Asia Outreach and Capacity Building Workshop is online the three days of 15-17 November 2021. Please find a detailed program here. The deadline for registration is 12 November.

Day 1 15 Nov 2021:

Session I: Opening Session

Session II: IPCC AR6 WG1 Report and CORDEX Activities in Asia and Australasia

Session III: Regional Climate Analysis and Projection

 

Day 2 16 Nov 2021:

Session IV: National Assessment, Impacts Studies and Data Application

 

Day 3 17 Nov 2021:

Session V: Progress Evaluation on 5km SEACLID/CORDEX SEA simulation and Coordination (This session is restricted to Project Members)

Podcast on CORDEX Africa

The Climate System Analysis Group (CSAG) at the University of Cape Town a while ago started a podcast called Climate Frontiers.

The third episode, guided by Dr Chris Lennard (former CORDEX SAT-member) and published in July 2021, focused on CORDEX Africa and how it has developed during the last decade.

Many African CORDEX community members, a former CORDEX co-chair, the IPOC director, and others contribute to the podcast with some of their views on building the capacity of African scientists working with climate related issues as well as the benefits for society.

Please find more information and the link to listen here.