International Project Office for CORDEX
In 2014, the World Climate Research Programme selected SMHI as host institute for the International Project Office for CORDEX. CORDEX stands for the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment and its vision is to advance and coordinate the science and application of regional climate downscaling through global partnerships.
The International Project Office for CORDEX, IPOC for short, is responsible for providing strong global coordination, together with the appropriate administrative, scientific and technical support, to respond to CORDEXs rapidly expanding worldwide activities. The IPOC was officially launched in January 2015.
The need for regional downscaling
A Global Climate Model, GCM, can provide reliable prediction information on rather coarse scales. The models are divided into boxes of thousands of square kilometers, covering what could be a vastly differing landscape, from very mountainous to flat coastal plains for example, with greatly varying potential for floods, droughts or other extreme events.
Regional Climate Models, RCM, and Empirical Statistical Downscaling, ESD, applied over a limited area and driven by GCMs can provide information on much smaller scales supporting more detailed impact and adaptation assessment and planning, which is vital in many vulnerable regions of the world.
SMHIs longstanding role in CORDEX
SMHI has been a key player in CORDEX since its inception in response to the IPCC 4th Report which highlighted the need for detailed regional climate information. The Rossby Centre at SMHI produced the largest number of CORDEX simulations across seven domains (Africa, Europe, South Asia, North America, MENA, South America and the Arctic) and this data is freely available.
CORDEX activities continue apace at the Rossby Centre and the present data will be further extended with new CORDEX simulations in the future, both on the "regular" regional scales and for some specifically vulnerable regions on very-high resolutions. Rossby Centre's Dr Grigory Nikulin, is a member of the CORDEX Science Advisory Team, further highlighting SMHIs scientific contribution to the project.
The role of the IPOC
The IPOC is responsible for providing strong global coordination, together with the appropriate administrative, scientific and technical support, to respond to CORDEXs rapidly expanding worldwide activities. This includes:
- Supporting the CORDEX Science Advisory Team in driving forward the scientific goals and strategy of the initiative.
- Sourcing funding for activities such as workshops and training.
- Ensuring linkages to the vulnerability, impact and adaptation community.
- Organized the International Conferences on Regional Climate, ICRC-CORDEX 2019, which took take place in Beijing in October 2019.
Iréne Lake is director of the IPOC.