13 MENA

CORDEX Middle East North Africa (MENA)

The CORDEX MENA domain, which includes North Africa, southern Europe, and the whole Arabian Peninsula, offers considerable challenges for assessing and understanding climate change over the region due to its large size and complex topography. It includes highland areas (e.g., Atlas Mountains, Ethiopian Highlands, Iranian and Anatolian plateaus), wide coastal areas, and desert areas (Sahara in Africa and Rub Al-Khali in the Arabian Peninsula).

Model domain

Open

For CORDEX MENA, the simulations were performed on a rotated grid with the pole at 180°W longitude and 90°N latitude. The domain covers approximately the region from about 27°W to 76°E longitude and 7°S to 45°N latitude.

Simulations were carried out using two different resolutions: 0.44° (approx. 50 km) and 0.22° (approx. 25 km) to investigate the effects of increasing spatial resolution on the quality of results. ERA-Interim driven simulations have been performed over the period is 1979-2011, using both resolutions. Climate projections have been performed over the 21st century according to the RCP4.5 scenario, using both resolutions.

Contributing partners from the CLM-Community

• Edoardo Bucchignani (CIRA and CMCC, Capua)

• Paola Mercogliano (CIRA and CMCC, Capua)

• Hans-Jürgen Panitz (KIT, Karlsruhe)

• Yoav Levi (Israeli Meteorological Service)

• Hilla Gerstman (Israeli Meteorological Service)

• Giora Gershtein (Israeli Meteorological Service)              

Simulations performed or planned by the CLM-Community with CCLM-4-8-17

Evaluation runs at 0.22° and 0.44° were performed by CMCC using ERAinterim data (Dee et al., 2011) as boundary forcing for the time period 1979 - 2011.

Runs at 0.44° (approx. 50 km)

Model Setup

• Version: int2lm_120606_1.19 /  cosmo_111206_4.21_clm2

• Configuration outputs of the ERA-Interim driven simulation:

  • COSMO-CLM YUSPECIF

  • INT2LM OUTPUT

Runs at 0.22° (approx. 25 km)

Model Setup

• Version: int2lm_120606_1.19 /  cosmo_111206_4.21_clm2

• Configuration outputs of the ERA-Interim driven simulation:

  • COSMO-CLM YUSPECIF

  • INT2LM OUTPUT

Simulations performed or planned by the CLM-Community with CCLM-5-0-6

An evaluation run at 0.44 with the new COSMO-CLM model version was performed by IMS using ERA-interim data (Dee et al., 2011) as boundary forcing for the time period 1979 - 2014.

Runs at 0.44° (approx. 50 km)

Model Setup

• Version: int2lm_120606_1.19 /  cosmo_131108_5.00_clm6

• Configuration outputs of the MPI-ESM driven simulation:

  • COSMO-CLM YUSPECIF 

  • INT2LM OUTPUT 

References

E. Bucchignani, L. Cattaneo, H.- J. Panitz, P. Mercogliano (2015): Sensitivity analysis with the regional climate model COSMO-CLM over the CORDEX-MENA domain. Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, 2015. DOI: 10.1007/s00703-015-0403-3

E. Bucchignani, P. Mercogliano, G. Rianna, H.- J. Panitz (2015): Analysis of ERA-Interim driven COSMO-CLM simulations over Middle East - North Africa domain at different spatial resolutions, International Journal of Climatology, 2015. DOI: 10.1002/joc.4559

Conferences

E. Bucchignani et al. A sensitivity study with COSMO-CLM over MENA-CORDEX domain, CLM Assembly 2014, Frankfurt, 2-5 September 2014

E. Bucchignani et al. Regional climate simulations with COSMO-CLM over MENA-CORDEX domain, EGU 2014, Vienna, 27 April - 2 May 2014

E. Bucchignani et al. Analysis of ERA-Interim driven COSMO-CLM simulations over MENA-CORDEX area, COSMO-CLM User Seminar 2015, Offenbach, 2-4 March 2015.

E. Bucchignani et al. COSMO-CLM simulations over MENA-CORDEX domain: performance evaluation and climate projections for the XXI century, ICRC-CORDEX 2016, Stockholm, 17-20 May 2016.

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