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.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource