Science Highlights

Updated CORDEX-CMIP6 archiving specifications for dynamical downscaling are now available.

This new version introduces minor revisions aimed at resolving inconsistencies identified by the community, increasing flexibility in areas constrained by standard libraries, and enabling the publication of CORDEX-CMIP6 data on the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF). The latter imposed a key update to the project_id, which has been updated from “CORDEX” to “CORDEX-CMIP6” to ensure compatibility with ESGF standards.

We  thank all community members who reported issues and contributed valuable feedback. This release replaces the previous version from April 2024 and should be used for all CORDEX-CMIP6 dynamical downscaling outputs.

Please find the updated archiving specification document here

The Flagship Pilot Study (FPS) proposal  entitled High-resolution downscaling of tropical cyclones in the Caribbean region (HighResTC-CAR) has been endorsed by the CORDEX Science Advisory Team! This is the fifth and final proposal from the 2024 call that is endorsed.

Under Active Flagship Pilot Studies  you can read more about all our active Flagship Pilot Studies.

RIfS is seeking experts to join a new task team dedicated to the responsible use of climate data. Engagement from the CORDEX community is highly encouraged, please consider applying!

“The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) is currently the basis of a large number of efforts to plan for future climate on scales that are not always well-resolved in GCMs, often via derived products that seek to add value regarding additional processes. Given the well-established role of CMIP data, and derived products, to inform decisions at the regional scale, this task team seeks to reduce data misuse by developing recommendations for better means of documenting the limitations of CMIP model outputs for various key applications.

Expected outcome

Identify a first set of limitations that can be communicated.
Identify options for how appropriate uses and potential for misuse can be communicated to the impact and adaptation communities.
Provide recommendations, including preferred options, to the CMIP Panel and RIfS Scientific Steering Group (SSG).
Establish a preliminary framework to develop a more comprehensive response to this problem.”

Read more about the tasks and responsibilities and how to apply on the RIfS website.

Deadline 21 March 17.00 UTC.

We are happy to annnounce that so far four new Flagship Pilot Studies have been endorsed and will start during 2025. The new FPSs have the below titles. (Clic the link to read more about each FPS)

Australasia: Sub-Hourly Extreme Precipitation (SHEP)

Macaronesian Archipelagos: Convection Permitting projections focused on island processes (FPS-I-Mac)

Island Climate – Pacific (IC-Pac)

Enhancing climate downscaling at km-scale in sub-tropical South America using machine learning CPRCM-CMIP6 emulators

You can also read more about the Flagship Pilot Studies.

As part of CORDEX role in the Seventh Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP7) Impacts and Adaptation Data Request Author Team, we wanted to alert you to the ongoing public request that will determine the variables produced and made available in the next generation of climate model intercomparisons.  CMIP7 is looking for inputs on variable priorities as well as proposals for new variables that would facilitate new areas of research and application.  These represent requests to the climate modeling groups that will have to put in work to produce, process, and make these outputs available for use in our work.  CMIP7 is encouraging requests to be framed as “opportunities” whereby climate modelers will see the appeal in producing additional variables and variable groups because of the research and applications they allow.  This is a chance for CORDEX to help set the stage for improved regional and local downscaling possibilities for the next decade, which will be a critical period for climate risk assessments and climate action planning around the world.

To help propose and prioritize new variables and application opportunities, please visit this Mural Board (you can log in as a visitor).  There you will find instructions for providing inputs about variable groups associated with climate model output applications that you would like to undertake in the years ahead.  We will be collecting information through mural boards for each major impacts sector (best navigated through the outline bubble button available at the top-right of the screen) as well as climate services and an ‘other’ board where you can tell us about applications that don’t fit neatly into one of those categories.  For CORDEX downscaling/modelling, we should mostly put our inputs into the ‘Misc/Other Board’. For other CORDEX activities give your input into any of the other board that is relevant. We will then collate each mural board into representative inputs to the CMIP7 data request process, which we will help write up as part of an Impacts and Adaptation Data Request paper for a CMIP7 special issue.  The more precise information you give us in the Mural Board, the better — if something is unclear we may follow up via email to clarify your requests.  It also helps to have a lot of CORDEX inputs so that our community can better motivate the global climate modelers to give us the variables we need.

We would appreciate your timely inputs, as real-time public consultation will remain open until September 8^th.

The CORDEX Science Advisory Team (SAT) invites you to submit new proposals for Flagship Pilot Studies!

This FPS call consists of two parts:

An open part where you suggest a topic of your choice as long as it follows the FPS Criteria & Guidelines

A part dedicated to Climate Risks. Climatic Hazards, and in particular their extremes, are responsible for much of the risk to human and natural systems associated with climate variability and change and often require high resolution models to adequately simulate them including their potential changes due to climate change. These hazards include: tropical cyclones, heatwaves, extreme wind storms, drought, fires and orography induced processes such as extreme rainfall related floods and landslides, downslope winds and convection, amongst others. We here encourage FPS proposals that target risk producing climatic hazards including assessing and improving simulations of the hazard, understanding the projected future changes, and quantifying the added-value that high-resolution/process resolving brings to the simulation of the hazards and their changes. CORDEX SAT would also highly appreciate proposals related to Small Islands challenges.

As indicated in the FPS Criteria & Guidelines the FPS proposals will be reviewed and endorsed by the CORDEX SAT, together with selected external reviewers. Further details on the FPS, together with instructions on how to submit your proposal and an application template, can be found under Experiment Guidelines/Flagship Pilote Studies at the CORDEX website www.cordex.org.

The deadline for applications is Wednesday 21 August 2024
The successful proposals will be presented at the CORDEX web.