Med-CORDEX Initiative for Mediterranean Climate Studies

Ruti, Paolo; Somot, Samuel; Giorgi, Filippo; Dubois, Clotilde; Flaounas, Emmanouil; Obermann, Anika; Dell’Aquila, Alessandro; Pisacane, Giovanna; Harzallah, Ali; lombardi, emanuele; Ahrens, Bodo; Akhtar, Naveed; Alias, Antoinette; Arsouze, Thomas; Aznar, R.; Bastin, Sophie; Bartholy, Judit; Béranger, Karine; Beuvier, Jonathan; Bouffies-Cloché, Sophie; Brauch, Jennifer; Cabos, William; Calmanti, Sandro; Calvet, Jean‐Christophe; Carillo, Adriana; Conte, Dario; Coppola, Erika; Djurdjević, Vladimir; Drobinski, Philippe; Elizalde-Arellano, A.; Gaertner, Miguel Ángel; Galán, Pablo; Gallardo, Clemente; Gualdi, Silvio; Gonçalves, M.; Jorba, Oriol; Jordà, Gabriel; L'Hévéder, B.; Lebeaupin-Brossier, Cindy; Li, Lü; Liguori, Giovanni; Lionello, Piero; Macías, Diego; Nabat, Pierre; Önol, Barış; Raikovic, B.; Ramage, Karim; Sevault, Florence; Sannino, Gianmaria; Struglia, Maria Vittoria; Sanna, Antonella; Torma, Csaba; Vervatis, Vassilios

doi:10.1175/bams-d-14-00176.1

Cited by 275 publications

(251 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…surface temperature and precipitation at various weather stations around the Mediterranean, fine-scale gridded observational datasets and simulations performed within the context of the HyMeX ) and MED-CORDEX programs (Ruti et al 2015) for present day and future climate. Our main objective is to investigate the temporal and spatial variability of the scaling and more precisely, to address the following questions:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scaling precipitation extremes with temperature in the Mediterranean: past climate assessment and projection in anthropogenic scenarios

et al. 2016

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temperature-precipitation extremes relationship displays a hook shape across the Mediterranean, with negative slope at high temperatures and a slope following Clausius-Clapeyron (CC)-scaling at low temperatures. The temperature at which the slope of the temperature-precipitation extreme relation sharply changes (or temperature break), ranges from about 20 °C in the western Mediterranean to <10 °C in Greece. In addition, this slope is always negative in the arid regions of the Mediterranean. The scaling of the simulated precipitation extremes is insensitive to oceanatmosphere coupling, while it depends very weakly on the resolution at high temperatures for short precipitation accumulation times. In future climate scenario simulations covering the 2070-2100 period, the temperature break shifts to higher temperatures by a value which is on average the mean regional temperature change due to global warming. AbstractIn this study we investigate the scaling of precipitation extremes with temperature in the Mediterranean region by assessing against observations the present day and future regional climate simulations performed in the frame of the HyMeX and MED-CORDEX programs. Over the 1979-2008 period, despite differences in quantitative precipitation simulation across the various models, the change in precipitation extremes with respect to temperature is robust and consistent. The spatial variability of the This paper is a contribution to the special issue on Med-CORDEX, an international coordinated initiative dedicated to the multi-component regional climate modelling (atmosphere, ocean, land surface, river) of the Mediterranean under the umbrella of HyMeX, CORDEX, and Med-CLIVAR and coordinated by Samuel Somot, Paolo Ruti, Erika Coppola, Gianmaria Sannino, Bodo Ahrens, and Gabriel Jordà. 3The slope of the simulated future temperature-precipitation extremes relationship is close to CC-scaling at temperatures below the temperature break, while at high temperatures, the negative slope is close, but somewhat flatter or steeper, than in the current climate depending on the model. Overall, models predict more intense precipitation extremes in the future. Adjusting the temperature-precipitation extremes relationship in the present climate using the CC law and the temperature shift in the future allows the recovery of the temperature-precipitation extremes relationship in the future climate. This implies negligible regional changes of relative humidity in the future despite the large warming and drying over the Mediterranean. This suggests that the Mediterranean Sea is the primary source of moisture which counteracts the drying and warming impacts on relative humidity in parts of the Mediterranean region.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scaling precipitation extremes with temperature in the Mediterranean: past climate assessment and projection in anthropogenic scenarios

et al. 2016

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“…To do so we compare the sea level variability reproduced by an ensemble of ORCMs, most of them available from the Med-CORDEX database (Ruti et al 2015, http://www.medcordex.eu), with several observational products in order to elucidate the best approach to configure Mediterranean ORCMs. We focus on the treatment of the Atlantic boundary conditions which has been suggested to be of paramount importance for Mediterranean sea level modelling (Calafat et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving sea level simulation in Mediterranean regional climate models

et al. 2017

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long-term regional simulations of the Mediterranean Sea do not integrate the full sea level information from the Atlantic, which is a substantial shortcoming when analysing Mediterranean sea level response. In the present study we analyse different approaches followed by state-of-the-art regional climate models to simulate Mediterranean sea level variability. Additionally we present a new simulation which incorporates improved information of Atlantic sea level forcing at the lateral boundary. We evaluate the skills of the different simulations in the frame of long-term hindcast simulations spanning from 1980 to 2012 analysing sea level variability from seasonal to multidecadal scales. Results from the new simulation show a substantial improvement in the modelled Mediterranean sea level signal. This confirms that Mediterranean mean sea level is strongly influenced by the Atlantic conditions, and thus suggests that the quality of the information in the lateral boundary conditions (LBCs) is crucial for the good modelling of Mediterranean sea level. We also found that the regional differences inside the basin, that are induced by circulation changes, are model-dependent and thus not affected by the LBCs. Finally, we argue that a correct configuration of LBCs in the Atlantic should be used for future Mediterranean simulations, which cover hindcast period, but also for scenarios.

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“…Here we analyze the ability of RCMs to simulate medicanes, using a large multi-model ensemble of RCM simulations from EURO-CORDEX (Jacob et al 2014) and Med-CORDEX (Ruti et al 2015) projects. Though GCM simulations, with a similar resolution as the RCM simulations used here, are also available, these GCM simulations are not adequate for the present study due to several reasons.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation of medicanes over the Mediterranean Sea in a regional climate model ensemble: impact of ocean–atmosphere coupling and increased resolution

et al. 2016

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International audienceMedicanes are cyclones over the Mediterranean Sea having a tropical-like structure but a rather small size, that can produce significant damage due to the combination of intense winds and heavy precipitation. Future climate projections, performed generally with individual atmospheric climate models, indicate that the intensity of the medicanes could increase under climate change conditions. The availability of large ensembles of high resolution and ocean–atmosphere coupled regional climate model (RCM) simulations, performed in MedCORDEX and EURO-CORDEX projects, represents an opportunity to improve the assessment of the impact of climate change on medicanes. As a first step towards such an improved assessment, we analyze the ability of the RCMs used in these projects to reproduce the observed characteristics of medicanes, and the impact of increased resolution and air-sea coupling on their simulation. In these storms, air-sea interaction plays a fundamental role in their formation and intensification, a different mechanism from that of extra-tropical cyclones, where the baroclinic instability mechanism prevails. An observational database, based on satellite images combined with high resolution simulations (Miglietta et al. in Geophys Res Lett 40:2400–2405, 2013), is used as a reference for evaluating the simulations. In general, the simulated medicanes do not coincide on a case-by-case basis with the observed medicanes. However, observed medicanes with a high intensity and relatively long duration of tropical characteristics are better replicated in simulations. The observed spatial distribution of medicanes is generally well simulated, while the monthly distribution reveals the difficulty of simulating the medicanes that first appear in September after the summer minimum in occurrence. Increasing the horizontal resolution has a systematic and generally positive impact on the frequency of simulated medicanes, while the general underestimation of their intensity is not corrected in most cases. The capacity of a few models to better simulate the medicane intensity suggests that the model formulation is more important than reducing the grid spacing alone. A negative intensity feedback is frequently the result of air-sea interaction for tropical cyclones in other basins. The introduction of air-sea coupling in the present simulations has an overall limited impact on medicane frequency and intensity, but it produces an interesting seasonal shift of the simulated medicanes from autumn to winter. This fact, together with the analysis of two contrasting particular cases, indicates that the negative feedback could be limited or even absent in certain situations. We suggest that the effects of air-sea interaction on medicanes may depend on the oceanic mixed layer depth, thus increasing the applicability of ocean–atmosphere coupled RCMs for climate change analysis of this kind of cyclones

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Med-CORDEX Initiative for Mediterranean Climate Studies

Cited by 275 publications

References 81 publications

Scaling precipitation extremes with temperature in the Mediterranean: past climate assessment and projection in anthropogenic scenarios

Scaling precipitation extremes with temperature in the Mediterranean: past climate assessment and projection in anthropogenic scenarios

Improving sea level simulation in Mediterranean regional climate models

Simulation of medicanes over the Mediterranean Sea in a regional climate model ensemble: impact of ocean–atmosphere coupling and increased resolution

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