Populated regional climate models (Pop-RCMs): The next frontier in regional climate modeling
Filippo Giorgi, Andreas F. Prein
Abstract
The field of regional climate modeling originated in the late eighties and has steadily grown since then Several regional climate model systems (RCMs) have been developed and used for a wide range of applications by growing research communities, from regional process studies to paleoclimate simulations and future climate projections. RCM development has mainly proceeded within three primary dimensions: increased model resolution, greater complexity, and production of climate information based on large multi-model ensembles. In the first of these dimensions, today's RCMs have reached "convection-permitting (CP)" resolutions, ~1-3 km, at which cumulus convection can be explicitly represented The convergence of these three dimensions provides the grounds for the next frontier in RCM research.