CORDEX - Flagship Pilot Study on Convective phenomena at high resolution over Europe and the Mediterranean (FPSCONV)

Scientific Objectives

1. Investigate convective-scale events, their processes and their changes in a few key regions of Europe and the Mediterranean using convection-permitting RCMs, statistical models and available observations

2. Provide a collective assessment of our modeling capacity at convection-permitting scale

3. Shape a coherent and collective assessment of the consequences of climate change on convective event impacts at local to regional scales

Science Aims

1. How do Convective events and associated damaging phenomena (heavy precipitation, wind storms, flash-floods) respond to changing climate conditions in different climatic regions of Europe?

2. Does an improved representation of convective processes and precipitation at convection permitting scales lead to upscaled added value?

3. Is it possible to replace costly convection- permitting experiments with physically defensible statistical downscaling approaches such as “convection emulators” that mimic CPMs and are fed by output of conventional- scale RCMs?