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Meteorological processes over islands with complex orography could be better simulated by Convection Permitting Regional Climate Models (CP-RCMs) thanks to an improved representation of the orography, land–sea contrasts, the combination of coastal and orographic effects, and explicit deep convection. This paper evaluates the ability of the CP-RCM CNRM-AROME (2.5-km horizontal resolution) to simulate relevant meteorological characteristics of the Mediterranean island of Corsica for the 2000–2018 period. These hindcast simulations are compared to their driving Regional Climate Model (RCM) CNRM-ALADIN (12.5-km horizontal resolution and parameterised convection), weather stations for precipitation and wind and gridded precipitation datasets. The main benefits are found in the representation of (i) precipitation extremes resulting mainly from mesoscale convective systems affected by steep mountains during autumn and (ii) the formation of convection through thermally induced diurnal circulations and their interaction with the orography during summer. Simulations of hourly precipitation extremes, the diurnal cycle of precipitation, the distribution of precipitation intensities, the duration of precipitation events, and sea breezes are all improved in the 2.5-km simulations with respect to the RCM, confirming an added value. However, existing differences between model simulations and observations are difficult to explain as the main biases are related to the availability and quality of observations, particularly at high elevations. Overall, better results from the 2.5-km resolution, increase our confidence in CP-RCMs to investigate future climate projections for Corsica and islands with complex terrain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

17 Spatial distribution of the annual mean number of cells per year above the 10 mm threshold during the extended fall (SOND) for CNRM-AROME and COMEPHORE on the tracking domain for several time periods The original article has been corrected. 11 Spatial distribution of the annual mean number of cells per year above the 10 mm threshold during the extended fall (SOND) between 1997-2016 for CNRM-AROME and COMEPHORE on the tracking domain Graph: Fig. [Extracted from the article]

Here we present the first multi-model ensemble of regional climate simulations at kilometer-scale horizontal grid spacing over a decade long period. A total of 23 simulations run with a horizontal grid spacing of ∼ 3 km, driven by ERA-Interim reanalysis, and performed by 22 European research groups are analysed. Six different regional climate models (RCMs) are represented in the ensemble. The simulations are compared against available high-resolution precipitation observations and coarse resolution (∼ 12 km) RCMs with parameterized convection. The model simulations and observations are compared with respect to mean precipitation, precipitation intensity and frequency, and heavy precipitation on daily and hourly timescales in different seasons. The results show that kilometer-scale models produce a more realistic representation of precipitation than the coarse resolution RCMs. The most significant improvements are found for heavy precipitation and precipitation frequency on both daily and hourly time scales in the summer season. In general, kilometer-scale models tend to produce more intense precipitation and reduced wet-hour frequency compared to coarse resolution models. On average, the multi-model mean shows a reduction of bias from ∼ −40% at 12 km to ∼ −3% at 3 km for heavy hourly precipitation in summer. Furthermore, the uncertainty ranges i.e. the variability between the models for wet hour frequency is reduced by half with the use of kilometer-scale models. Although differences between the model simulations at the kilometer-scale and observations still exist, it is evident that these simulations are superior to the coarse-resolution RCM simulations in the representing precipitation in the present-day climate, and thus offer a promising way forward for investigations of climate and climate change at local to regional scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first multi-model ensemble of 10-year, "convection-permitting" kilometer-scale regional climate model (RCM) scenario simulations downscaled from selected CMIP5 GCM projections for historical and end of century time slices. The technique is to first downscale the CMIP5 GCM projections to an intermediate 12–15 km resolution grid using RCMs, and then use these fields to downscale further to the kilometer scale. The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of the representation of the precipitation characteristics and their projected changes over the greater Alpine domain within a Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment Flagship Pilot Study and the European Climate Prediction system project, tasked with investigating convective processes at the kilometer scale. An ensemble of 12 simulations performed by different research groups around Europe is analyzed. The simulations are evaluated through comparison with high resolution observations while the complementary ensemble of 12 km resolution driving models is used as a benchmark to evaluate the added value of the convection-permitting ensemble. The results show that the kilometer-scale ensemble is able to improve the representation of fine scale details of mean daily, wet-day/hour frequency, wet-day/hour intensity and heavy precipitation on a seasonal scale, reducing uncertainty over some regions. It also improves the representation of the summer diurnal cycle, showing more realistic onset and peak of convection. The kilometer-scale ensemble refines and enhances the projected patterns of change from the coarser resolution simulations and even modifies the sign of the precipitation intensity change and heavy precipitation over some regions. The convection permitting simulations also show larger changes for all indices over the diurnal cycle, also suggesting a change in the duration of convection over some regions. A larger positive change of frequency of heavy to severe precipitation is found. The results are encouraging towards the use of convection-permitting model ensembles to produce robust assessments of the local impacts of future climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modelling the rare but high-impact Mediterranean Heavy Precipitation Events (HPEs) at climate scale remains a largely open scientific challenge. The issue is adressed here by running a 38-year-long continuous simulation of the CNRM-AROME Convection-Permitting Regional Climate Model (CP-RCM) at a 2.5 km horizontal resolution and over a large pan-Alpine domain. First, the simulation is evaluated through a basic Eulerian statistical approach via a comparison with selected high spatial and temporal resolution observational datasets. Northwestern Mediterranean fall extreme precipitation is correctly represented by CNRM-AROME at a daily scale and even better at an hourly scale, in terms of location, intensity, frequency and interannual variability, despite an underestimation of daily and hourly highest intensities above 200 mm/day and 40 mm/h, respectively. A comparison of the CP-RCM with its forcing convection-parameterised 12.5 km Regional Climate Model (RCM) demonstrates a clear added value for the CP-RCM, confirming previous studies. Secondly, an object-oriented Lagrangian approach is proposed with the implementation of a precipitating system detection and tracking algorithm, applied to the model and the reference COMEPHORE precipitation dataset for twenty fall seasons. Using French Mediterranean HPEs as objects, CNRM-AROME's ability to represent the main characteristics of fall convective systems and tracks is highlighted in terms of number, intensity, area, duration, velocity and severity. Further, the model is able to simulate long-lasting and severe extreme fall events similar to observations. However, it fails to reproduce the precipitating systems and tracks with the highest intensities (maximum intensities above 40 mm/h) well, and the model's tendency to overestimate the cell size increases with intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South-East France is a region often affected by heavy precipitating events the characteristics of which are likely to be significantly impacted in the future climate. In this study, cnrm-arome, a Convection-Permitting Regional Climate Model with a 2.5 km horizontal resolution is compared to its forcing model, the Regional Climate Model aladin-climate at a horizontal resolution of 12.5 km, self-driven by the era-interim reanalysis. An hourly observation dataset with a resolution of 1 km, comephore, is used in order to assess simulated surface precipitation from a seasonal to hourly scale. The representation of the spatial pattern of fall precipitation climatology is improved by cnrm-arome. It also shows a clear added value with respect to aladin-climate through the improvement of the localization and intensity of extreme rainfall on a daily and hourly time scale on both fine and coarse spatial scales (2.5, 12.5 and 50 km). cnrm-arome in particular is able to simulate intense rainfall on lowlands and makes sub-daily rainfall events more intense than aladin-climate. cnrm-arome still underestimates very extreme precipitation from above 30 mm/h or 230 mm/day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new high-resolution regional climate change ensemble has been established for Europe within the World Climate Research Program Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (EURO-CORDEX) initiative. The first set of simulations with a horizontal resolution of 12.5 km was completed for the new emission scenarios RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 with more simulations expected to follow. The aim of this paper is to present this data set to the different communities active in regional climate modelling, impact assessment and adaptation. The EURO-CORDEX ensemble results have been compared to the SRES A1B simulation results achieved within the ENSEMBLES project. The large-scale patterns of changes in mean temperature and precipitation are similar in all three scenarios, but they differ in regional details, which can partly be related to the higher resolution in EURO-CORDEX. The results strengthen those obtained in ENSEMBLES, but need further investigations. The analysis of impact indices shows that for RCP8.5, there is a substantially larger change projected for temperature-based indices than for RCP4.5. The difference is less pronounced for precipitation-based indices. Two effects of the increased resolution can be regarded as an added value of regional climate simulations. Regional climate model simulations provide higher daily precipitation intensities, which are completely missing in the global climate model simulations, and they provide a significantly different climate change of daily precipitation intensities resulting in a smoother shift from weak to moderate and high intensities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, an ensemble of four multi-year climate simulations is performed with the regional climate model ALADIN to evaluate its ability to simulate the climate over North America in the CORDEX framework. The simulations differ in their driving fields (ERA-40 or ERA-Interim) and the nudging technique (with or without large-scale nudging). The validation of the simulated 2-m temperature and precipitation with observationally-based gridded data sets shows that ALADIN performs similarly to other regional climate models that are commonly used over North America. Large-scale nudging improves the temporal correlation of the atmospheric circulation between ALADIN and its driving field, and also reduces the warm and dry summer biases in central North America. The differences between the simulations driven with different reanalyses are small and are likely related to the regional climate model's induced internal variability. In general, the impact of different driving fields on ALADIN is smaller than that of large-scale nudging. The analysis of the multi-year simulations over the prairie and the east taiga indicates that the ALADIN 2-m temperature and precipitation interannual variability is similar or larger than that observed. Finally, a comparison of the simulations with observations for the summer 1993 shows that ALADIN underestimates the flood in central North America mainly due to its systematic dry bias in this region. Overall, the results indicate that ALADIN can produce a valuable contribution to CORDEX over North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several corrections to the article "EURO-CORDEX: new high-resolution climate change projections for European impact research" in the March 2014 issue is presented.

Unfortunately, the article "Extreme rainfall in Mediterranean France during the fall: added value of the CNRM‑AROME Convection‑Permitting Regional Climate Model", written by Quentin Fumière was originally published electronically on the publisher's internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on 24 July 2019 without open access with incorrect copyright holder as "© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Important discrepancies in the large-scale summer climate change projections were recently detected between the global and regional climate models (RCM/GCM) in the EURO-CORDEX ensemble for several variables including surface temperature, total precipitation, and surface solar radiation. In this study, we use a new experimental framework inspired by the Big-Brother–Little-Brother protocol to explore the mechanisms responsible for generating large-scale discrepancies in future projections between GCM/RCM pairs over Europe in summer. Starting from past and future simulations with a perfect GCM/RCM pair (same resolution, same physics, same forcings), we then disentangle the role of potential sources of GCM/RCM inconsistency by carrying out targeted sensitivity studies. We show that by following such a perfect approach, it is possible to obtain a GCM/RCM pair without statistically significant inconsistencies in projected climate change. Such discrepancies are mainly generated by differences in aerosols representation and atmospheric physics. The role of plant physiology is limited and unlikely to be the dominant factor in the detected discrepancies. Finally, it is unlikely that the discrepancies in the EURO-CORDEX ensemble projections are a result of the upscaled added value, as we show that the effect of increased resolution is not strong enough and mostly limited to areas with complex topography. These findings raise important questions about the current practices in regional climate modelling. In the short term, implementing RCM external forcings consistent with the driving GCM can significantly improve the situation at low cost. In the long term, adopting a seamless strategy in developing the GCM/RCM models should be questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]