The CORDEX Central America and South America Online Paper-Writing Workshops started during 2020 and has continued during 2021. 8 scientific papers were designed with the aim of advancing in the analysis of scientific topics relevant for the CAM and SAM domains and enhancing collaboration of young scientist.

IPCC: Several CORDEX SAM affiliates have participated as Lead Authors, Contributing Authors and Reviewers of the WGI and Atlas of the IPCC AR6 contributing with their expertise in regional climate assessments.

For new publications please go to Peer reviewed publications 2021.

1. Continued collaboration between CORDEX-CAM and CORDEX-SAM to enhance activities on capacity building and dissemination of science in our regions.
   1. Follow up activities of the CORDEX Central America and South America “Online Paper-Writing  Workshop on Regional Climate Modeling”, 3-5 May and 5-6 October 2021. We had the participation of 45 young scientists from 14 countries and 8 planned papers.
   2. Organization of an online special session at the Annual Meeting of the Mexican Geophysical Union (RAUGM 2021) entitled: “SE05: Regional modeling and CORDEX”. Oct 2021. 11 presentations and 4 posters.
2. We also continued the collaboration with the ICTP since RegCM is the model most widely used in the region. Several papers were published in Climate Dynamics on the Special issue on CORDEX-CORE that included relevant topics for CORDEX-CAM: Low-level jets; cyclone activity; ENSO teleconnections (Torres-Alavez et al. 2021a, b, c), winter subtropical jet stream (Luna-Niño et al. 2021); the monsoons (Ashfaq et al., 2021), climate hazards (Coppola et al.).
3. An article in BAMS was published to highlight the main results of the Special Issue (Giorgi et al., 2021, BAMS); T. Cavazos is co-author.
4. The focal points of CORDEX-CAM participated in the first article on CMIP6 projections for CORDEX-CAM. This allowed us to determine the best models for the region and the expected changes in Central America’s precipitation and temperature: Almazroui et al., 2021.
5. The Caribbean Climate Modelers Consortium hosted its annual meeting June 1-2, 2021. The virtual meeting discussed some of the latest activities with respect to Caribbean climate research and climate modelling activities. CORDEX presentations were facilitated as indicated below:
6. 1. N. Grigory. CORDEX: dynamical downscaling of CMIP6. Caribbean Climate Modelling Consortium Meeting. June 1-2, 2021. Oral presentation.
   2. J. M. Guiterrez Llorente. Euro-CORDEX: Lessons for the ESD CORDEX Experiment Protocol. Caribbean Climate Modelling Consortium Meeting. June 1-2, 2021. Oral presentation.
      The meeting formed part of activities in the Pilot Programme for Climate Resiliende (PPCR) Conference hosted June 1-2, 2021.CORDEX CAM Domain Simulations: CanESM and CNRM simulations completed at 20 km for RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 (1980-2005; 2020-2100); GFDL simulations completed at 20 km for RCP4.5 and 8.5 (1960-2100).

For new publications please go to Peer reviewed publications 2021.

1. NA-CORDEX data provision:
   1. New Simulations
      1. CRCM5-Ouranos driven by ERA5 at 0.11° (2 simulations, including internal sensitivity) are completed and will be transferred to NA-CORDEX web site
      2. CRCM5-Ouranos driven by CanESM5 and MPI-ESM2-LR from 1950 to 2100 (historical and SSP126-SSP370) currently running
   2. NCAR converted a copy of the NA-CORDEX dataset to Cloud-friendly Zarr format and published it on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The AWS Open Data Sponsorship Program and the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative are providing free storage and egress for this data.
   3. NCAR identified an error affecting the bias-corrected data in the NA-CORDEX archive and re-ran the bias-corrections to correct the error. All historical and RCP8.5 data have been republished; RCP4.5 data has been corrected and will be republished in the very near future.
2. A North American pole of CORDEX-FPS-LUCAS (Land Use and Climate Across Scales) has been created, led by Ouranos. Three groups are currently involved in idealized experiments.
3. A deep learning approach for identification of freezing rain over Montréal (Canada) has been developed using CRCM5 and could be applied to any model over the NA-CORDEX domain.

For new publications please go to Peer reviewed publications 2021.

• Organization of 4 virtual EURO-CORDEX workshops on  aerosols/land use forcing in CMIP6-CORDEX simulations; prioritization of SSPs; GCM evaluation and selection, Convection Permitting Strategy.
• Participation of EURO-CORDEX modeling teams in three FPSs (Convective phenomena at high resolution over Europe and the Mediterranean, LUCAS, URC-RCC)
• Preparation of the CMIP6 Ensemble design and GCM selection (evaluation tables)
• Preparation of the protocol for the CMIP6-EURO-CORDEX simulations

For new publications please go to Peer reviewed publications 2021.

For new publications please go to Peer reviewed publications 2021.

CORDEX FPS Convection-Permitting Third Pole (CPTP)

The contributions from the Centre for Climate Change Research (CCCR) at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), India as a modeling partner to the WCRP CORDEX Flagship Pilot Study (FPS) Convection-Permitting Third Pole (CPTP; http://rcg.gvc.gu.se/cordex_fps_cptp/ ) with the ICTP RegCM4 regional climate model 4km simulations for the three case study experiments are completed utilizing IITM high power computing resources during June 2021. The hourly model outputs for few selected variables are shared with the CPTP modelling working group for an overview joint analysis on intercomparison of the participating models’ performance for the case study simulations.

Invited Talks

• Sanjay Jayanarayanan was invited by ICIMOD to be a resource person for the Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC) virtual training event on WCRP CORDEX data access and use for Nepal Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, and delivered a presentation on "Introduction to CORDEX datasets over South Asia", on 7th June 2021.
• Sanjay Jayanarayanan was invited by the International Project Office for WCRP CORDEX to deliver a brief presentation on “Progress and Ongoing Activities in CORDEX South Asia” during the Online CORDEX Southeast Asia Outreach and Capacity Building Workshop, jointly organized by the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics(BMKG), Ramkhamhaeng University’s Center of Regional Climate Change and Renewable Energy (RUCORE) and Department of Earth Sciences and Environment, the National University of Malaysia and the CORDEX office, on 15 November 2021.
• Sanjay Jayanarayanan was invited by the WCRP Regional Consultation Focal Points to provide a short presentation on “CORDEX-South Asia: Providing High Resolution Climate Projections in Southern Asia Region” during a session on Climate science challenges and priorities in the Southern Asia region in the First Climate Research Forum for the Southern Asia region held online on 30 November 2021.
• Sanjay Jayanarayanan was invited to virtually join as a resource person and to provide a short presentation on “CORDEX-South Asia: Providing High Resolution Climate Projections in Southern Asia Region” during the training on “Spatial and temporal climate change analysis using CORDEX regional climate models over South Asia for Bangladesh” organised by ICIMOD,  in collaboration with  the UKMO, WCRP/CORDEX, SMHI, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and IITM, on 13 December 2021''.

For new publications please go to Peer reviewed publications 2021.

Conducting Multi-RCM runs with CMIP5 (2 GCMs for 2 scenarios) and CMIP6 (1 GCM for 2 scenarios) forcing. Completed RCP and SSP runs:

Starting data provision of Phase 2 through CORDEX-EA Data Center (from second half of 2019)y; output for evaluation runs using ERA-Interim is provided through ESGF-node.

For new publications please go to Peer reviewed publications 2021.

List of researchers

The lack of research activities in Central Asian domain has significantly affected the collaboration of regional researchers. For the list of researchers, we have searched publications, reports and major universities with the relevant departments, among the Central Asian Domain. After that, the researchers were contacted through email. Their prompt response showed their passion for our collaboration. The POC is pleased to share that we found potential collaborators for our research group.

Funding for a CORDEX workshop in Central Asia

A fewer number of climate related activities in the Central Asian countries have impacted the collaborations of regional researchers with the researchers among the leading world. However, CORDEX and WCRP are engaged in activities to promote regional research collaboration and capacity building. In this regard a subject workshop of three days is planned for which a research group has been formulated. The umbrella of this workshop encompases to develop strong coordination among climate scientists and students working on climate change, enhance capacity building of Central Asian researchers and students in advance climate data downscaling techniques through CORDEX communities, dissemination of information and science to policy communication and strengthen the CORDEX research team that has been established to meet the climatic challenges.

Tutorial - how to download CORDEX data

A tutorial has been prepared to help students and researchers to download CORDEX data.

 

For new publications please go to Peer reviewed publications 2021.

• Published first assessment of the CORDEX-Australasia ensemble including CORDEX-CORE. It assesses the models performance and analysis the future projected changes.
• Forming a ”National Partnership for Climate Projections” in Australia that brings various levels of government and research organisations together to collaborate on national projections including downscaling where CORDEX-Australasia is the agreed basis for future projections.
• Formation of the Australian Climate Service which will produce and analysis high resolution projections with CORDEX-Australasia providing the basis for future work.
• Formation of the National Environmental Science Program Climate Systems Hub which will work toward improving and using climate projections including downscaling.

For new publications please go to Peer reviewed publications 2021.

Mottram et al. (2021) compared the performance of five different regional climate models, available through the Antarctic CORDEX project, in simulating the present-day near-surface climate and surface mass balance (SMB) of Antarctica. This study showed that all models simulate Antarctic climate well when compared with daily observed temperature and pressure. Over a 30-year climatological mean period (1980 to 2010), the ensemble mean SMB over the Antarctic ice sheet is 2483 Gt yr^-1. However, individual model estimates vary from 1961±70 to 2519±118 Gt yr^-1. The largest spatial differences between model SMB estimates are in West Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula, and around the Transantarctic Mountains.

For more new publications please go to Peer reviewed publications 2021.

Inoue et al. (2021) performed an Arctic CORDEX coordinated evaluation of six RCMs with nine model runs using an in-situ meteorological observation data set obtained over the ice-free Arctic Ocean by the Japanese Research Vessel Mirai. The main sources of surface energy budget uncertainty were quantified: reduced occurrence of unstable stratification with low-level cloud water in all models in comparison to observations, significant differences in cloud water representations between single- and double moment cloud schemes, differences in partitioning of hydrometeors including solid/liquid precipitation, and lower-tropospheric air temperature biases.

For more new publications please go to Peer reviewed publications 2021.

Med-CORDEX simulations

• The current phase of Med-CORDEX is based on 5 modelling pillars: the so-called “baseline runs” that now gathers
  21 different fully-coupled Regional Climate System Models (RCSMs), developed and run by 11 different institutes, the 3 Med-CORDEX related FPS (FPS-convection, FPS-aerosol, FPS-airsea, see specific annual reports) and the Free-Modelling Zone that targets to discuss current protocol and propose tests to prepare future activities (the FMZ activity list).
• New simulation lists have been established for the baseline runs using coupled RCSMs in 2021: in total since the start of Med-CORDEX in 2009, 18 ERA-Interim-driven evaluation runs have been performed as well as 19 scenario runs driven by CMIP5 GCMs.

Med-CORDEX dissemination

• Up to now (Jan 2022), the Med-CORDEX central database includes 124 datasets including Atmosphere, Land and Ocean variables, provided by 15 institutes, 8.3 To uploaded, 41. To downloaded by 299 users (find more information here https://www.medcordex.eu/medcordex.php)
• The assessment report IPCC-AR6 WG1, published in 2021, uses publications based on Med-CORDEX and related FPS in various chapters (chap 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Atlas). Med-CORDEX-based literature is used for the assessment of various scientific topics such as coupled RCMs, aerosol representation in RCMs, CPRCM added-value, Marine heatwaves, Mediterranean Heavy Precipitation Events, Sea level, Medicanes, Regional wind system, Ocean deep convection, air-sea interactions, air-sea fluxes, aerosol-climate interactions.
• Some of the Med-CORDEX sea surface temperature projections for the Mediterranean Sea (8 RCSMs, 10 RCP8.5 and 4 RCP4.5 projection runs) are provided to a wide audience through the IPCC Interactive Atlas developed in the framework of the IPCC-AR6. This is the only high-resolution ocean projection dataset provided by the IPCC Atlas portal to complement the low-resolution CMIP5 and CMIP6 GCM datasets.
• In 2021, 7 new scientific articles have been published including the first from the FPS-convection and FPS-aerosol.
• Links between Med-CORDEX and the COST action MED-CYCLONES have been established.

Med-CORDEX organization

• Please use the new Med-CORDEX email lists to contact the initiative members. Please contact:
  ○ whole community and baseline activity: medcordex@meteo.fr,
  ○ steering committee: medcordex-sc@meteo.fr
  ○ CORDEX-FPS convection: cordexfps-convection@meteo.fr
  ○ CORDEX-FPS air-sea: cordexfps-airsea@meteo.fr
  ○ CORDEX-FPS aerosol: cordexfps-aerosol@meteo.fr
• The annual FPS-convection meeting was held remotely: 22-23 November 2021.
• The annual FPS-airsea meeting was held remotely: 30 March 2021.
• The 3 Med-CORDEX related FPS have been extended up to the of 2022
• The other planned activities such as the FPS-aerosol meeting and various scientific visits between partners have been postponed due to the covid crisis.

For new publications please go to Peer reviewed publications 2021.

First community MENA-CORDEX paper published, Zittis et al., 2021.

MENA-CORDEX Meeting (online) held on 28/06/2021 to discuss new CMIP6 downscaling.

For more new publications please go to Peer reviewed publications 2021.

Climate downscaling research in Southeast Asia has progressed, both at regional and country levels, especially in the past decade, although some challenges still remain (Tangang et al. 2021). Over the past year, there have been continued analyses of the downscaled model output of CORDEX Southeast Asia. Compared to global climate models (GCM), dynamical downscaling can improve the representation of temperature in Southeast Asia but can result in higher variability in rainfall (Nguyen-Thi et al. 2021).

In Vietnam, a comparison of the time of emergence of climate signals in the CORDEX Southeast Asia regional climate model (RCM) simulations and their driving GCMs showed some agreement in temperature but not for precipitation, which implies uncertainty in the impact of global warming on future hydrological cycles in the country (Nguyen-Thuy et al. 2021). Also, the RCMs tend to underestimate temperature and overestimate precipitation leading to an overestimation of drought conditions, which have been projected to increase in Vietnam in the future (Nguyen-Ngoc-Bich et al. 2021).

Downscaling can also improve sea surface wind speed representation for Southeast Asia, although projected changes can vary depending on the model, scenario, region and season (Herrmann et al. 2021), which can have implications in determining future offshore wind energy (Vu Dinh et al. 2022). To further investigate model biases, Magnaye et al. (2021) looked into the potential influence of sea surface temperature representation in climate models on modeled climate in the Philippines, and showed that models with well represented sea surface temperature generally simulate climate well.

The choice of the domain and spatial resolution also affects the simulation of tropical cyclones in the region, such that the number of tropical cyclones and intensification rate can be underestimated (Tibay et al. 2021). These findings, as well as the recommended CMIP6 GCMs over Southeast Asia based on the evaluation of Desmet and Ngo-Duc (2021), will be taken into consideration as the group prepares for the next phase in downscaling CMIP6 GCM projections.

For more new publications please go to Peer reviewed publications 2021.