MED-CORDEX initiative for Mediterranean Climate studies

Since the early' 90s, a number of research projects have focused on downscaling global climate simulations over the Euro-Mediterranean region. The Mediterranean region is considered as particularly sensitive and vulnerable to climate variability and change, in particular, because of its vulnerability to changes in the water cycle. The Mediterranean basin has a quite unique character resulting from both orographic conditions and demographic trends. The region features an enclosed sea, which is connected to the Atlantic ocean only by Gibraltar strait, surrounded by highly urbanized littorals and complex topography and coaslines, from which numerous rivers feed the Mediterranean sea. This results in many interactions and feedbacks across ocean-atmosphere-land processes that play a prominent role in determining the Mediterranean climate and, in turn, its impact on natural ecosystems and human activities. Therefore, MedCORDEX deals with a unique region where downscaling of global climate simulations needs to consider both, high fine scale forcings and the interactions across different components of the regional earth system (atmosphere, ocean, rivers, aerosols etc.). In order to describe the main features of MED-CORDEX, ehre we present illustrative examples from the first inter-comparison of several coupled and un-coupled regional simulations of present day climate over the MED-CORDEX domain. Relevant atmospheric and oceanic processes have been analyzed to provide an evaluation of the skill of Regional Climate System Models for the Mediterranean region.

RUTI Paolo;  SOMOT Samuel;  GIORGI F.;  DUBOIS Clotilde;  FLAOUNAS Emmanouil;  OBERMANN Anika;  DELL'AQUILA Alessandro;  PISACANE Giovanna;  HARZALLAH Ali;  LOMBARDI Emmanuele;  AHRENS Bodo;  AKHTAR Naveed;  ALIAS Antoinette;  ARSOUZE Thomas;  AZNAR Roland;  BASTIN Sophie;  BARTHOLY James;  BERANGER Karine;  BEUVIER Jonathan;  BOUFFIES-CLOCHE Sophie;  BRAUCH Jennifer;  CABOS Williams;  CALMANTI Sandro;  CALVET Jean Christophe;  CARRILLO Adriana;  CONTE Dario;  COPPOLA Erika;  DJURDJEVIC Vladimir;  DROBINSKI Philippe;  ELIZALDE Alberto;  GAERTNER Miguel;  GALAN Pedro;  GALLARDO Clemente;  GUALDI S.;  GONCALVES Maria;  JORBA Oriol;  JORDA Gabriel;  LHEVEDER Blandine;  LEBEAUPIN-BROSSIER Cindy;  LI Laurent;  LIGUORI Giovanni;  LIONELLO Piero;  MACIAS MOY Diego;  ONOL Baris;  NABAT P;  RAJKOVIC Borivoj;  RAMAGE Karim;  SEVAULT Florence;  SANNINO Gianmaria;  STRUGLIA Maria Victoria;  SANNA Antonella;  TORMA C;  VERVATIS V; 

2016-09-16

AMER METEOROLOGICAL SOC

JRC95058

0003-0007,   

http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00176.1,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC95058,   

10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00176.1,