WCRP COordinated Regional Downscaling EXperiment (CORDEX): a diagnostic MIP for CMIP6
William J. Gutowski Jr.1,Filippo Giorgi2,Bertrand Timbal3,Anne Frigon4,Daniela Jacob5,Hyun-Suk Kang6,Krishnan Raghavan7,Boram Lee8,Christopher Lennard9,Grigory Nikulin10,Eleanor O'Rourke10,a,Michel Rixen8,Silvina Solman11,Tannecia Stephenson12,and Fredolin Tangang13William J. Gutowski Jr. et al. William J. Gutowski Jr.1,Filippo Giorgi2,Bertrand Timbal3,Anne Frigon4,Daniela Jacob5,Hyun-Suk Kang6,Krishnan Raghavan7,Boram Lee8,Christopher Lennard9,Grigory Nikulin10,Eleanor O'Rourke10,a,Michel Rixen8,Silvina Solman11,Tannecia Stephenson12,and Fredolin Tangang13
1Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, Iowa State
University, Ames, 50310, USA
2Earth System Physics Section, The Abdus Salam International Centre for
Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy
3Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Centre for Australian Weather and
Climate Research, Melbourne, Australia
4OURANOS, Quebec, Canada
5Climate Service Centre, Hamburg, Germany
6NIMR, Korea Meteorological Administration, Jeju, Republic of Korea
7Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, India
8WCRP Joint Planning Staff, World Meteorological Organization, Geneva,
Switzerland
9University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
10Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Norrköping,
Sweden
11University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
12Univesity of West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica
13The National University of Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
acurrent address: Marine Institute, Rinville, Ireland
Received: 13 May 2016 – Discussion started: 27 Jun 2016 – Revised: 24 Sep 2016 – Accepted: 27 Sep 2016 – Published: 17 Nov 2016
Abstract. The COordinated Regional Downscaling EXperiment (CORDEX) is a diagnostic model intercomparison project (MIP) in CMIP6. CORDEX builds on a foundation of previous downscaling intercomparison projects to provide a common framework for downscaling activities around the world. The CORDEX Regional Challenges provide a focus for downscaling research and a basis for making use of CMIP6 global climate model (GCM) output to produce downscaled projected changes in regional climates and assess sources of uncertainties in the projections, all of which can potentially be distilled into climate change information for vulnerability, impacts and adaptation studies. CORDEX Flagship Pilot Studies advance regional downscaling by targeting one or more of the CORDEX Regional Challenges. A CORDEX-CORE framework is planned that will produce a baseline set of homogeneous high-resolution, downscaled projections for regions worldwide. In CMIP6, CORDEX coordinates with ScenarioMIP and is structured to allow cross comparisons with HighResMIP and interaction with the CMIP6 VIACS Advisory Board.
