Summary
This multi-day workshop will bring together researchers, data producers, end users, and interagency representatives to understand the state of the nation’s decision-relevant regional climate projections and carry that understanding forward to enable the development of guidelines for the usage and evaluation of such projections. Numerous approaches will be discussed, including statistical downscaling, dynamical downscaling, hybrid downscaling, and regionally refined global modeling. With these as a foundation, there is much to be learned by sharing knowledge, establishing common ground, and beginning to build a community of practice.
This workshop is coordinated by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) Interagency Group on Integrative Modeling (IGIM) and the Federal Adaptation and Resilience Group (FARG). Participation is anticipated from most major U.S. federal agencies and their partners who are involved in the production and dissemination of regional climate data products, including the US. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program and Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (SERDP & ESTCP). Participation is solicited and encouraged from a wide range of scientists and data users of regional climate data products across the U.S.
Objectives
The primary objective of this workshop is to enable the development of guidelines for production, evaluation, and utilization of high-resolution (<15 km) regional climate projections of impact-relevant variables (e.g., surface air temperature, precipitation, humidity, winds) spanning the historical record and the 21st century. To achieve this goal, the workshop will:
- Facilitate discussion between researchers, data producers, end users, and interagency representatives in government, academia, and industry.
- Consolidate and synthesize information across communities of practice to identify the current state of practice and science for decision-relevant regional climate projections.
- Identify knowledge gaps, complications, and future needs to inform a post-workshop report describing next steps for addressing these obstacles.
The workshop is by invitation only and there is no registration fee. Attendees represent a diverse range of professionals across the scientific and end-user communities and were nominated by members of the workshop's Interagency Steering Committee.
Workshop Format
- Location: The hybrid workshop will take place in person at the Residence Inn Marriott in Berkeley, CA.
- Date: November 14-16, 2023
- Access the full workshop agenda here.
- Access the workshop attendee list here.
The workshop will include keynote speeches and interactive breakout sessions. The workshop planning committee will collect topics for breakout sessions from attendees prior to the event. Moderators will be assigned to engage and balance participation for the in-person and virtual workshop attendees.
Access presentation documents from this workshop below:
Tuesday, November 14th
Plenary Presentation
- Mike Kuperberg (USGCRP)
Workshop Context and Workshop Goals
- Dan Feldman (LBNL), Paul Ullrich (UC Davis / LLNL)
Data Producer Talks
- Dan Cayan (UCSD)
- Anne Stoner (Earth Knowledge Inc.)
- Alex Cannon (ECCC)
- Katrina Fandrich (University of Albany)
- Bridget Thrasher (NEX - GDDP)
- Jeff Willison (EPA)
- Stefan Rahimi (University of Wyoming / UCLA)
- Rao Kotamarthi (DOE / Argonne / ADDA / ClimRR)
- Andreas Prein (NCAR)
- Andrew Jones (LBNL)
Wednesday, November 15th
End User Needs Talks
- Kripa Jagannathan (LBNL)
- Chris Frans (Bureau of Reclamation)
- Jay Alder (USGS)
- Geneva Gray (EPA)
- Michael Warner (USACE)
- Michael Mak (Pathways Climate Institute)
- Jared Bowden (North Carolina State University)
- Hugo Kyo Lee (NASA JPL)
- Keith Dixon (NOAA OAR GFDL)
- Michael Wehner (DOE / LBNL)
- Tanya Spero (EPA)
- Adrienne Wootten (SCCASC)
- Jeremy Giovando (USACE-CRREL)
- Ethan Gutmann (NCAR)
- Elias Massoud (ORNL)
Thursday, November 16th
Technical Talks
- Annarita Mariotti (NOAA HQ)
- Alex Hall (UCLA)
- Muge Komurcu (NASA Ames)
- Ruby Leung (DOE PNNL)
- Melissa Bukovsky (University of Wyoming)
- Hugo Kyo Lee (NASA JPL)
- Greg Tierney (EPA ORD)
- Owne Doherty (Eagle Rock Analytics)
Outcomes
- Build a community of practice among stakeholders creating and using regional climate projections.
- Improve methods for creating regional climate data.
- Utilize community of practice networks to co-create enhanced frameworks for future intercomparisons of climate data.
- Establish best practices for using regional climate datasets from various sources.
- Publish a post-workshop report with outcomes for future regional climate projection planning. Outcomes will also inform any prospective follow-on workshops.
As part of the NCA5 process, an independent validation was conducted of the two statistically downscaled climate data products used in the NCA5 report. The goal was to assess consistency among these products under a suite of metrics and diagnostics, and to inform the careful use of these data products in decision-making. In general, the two products were found to be largely consistent with each other. The minor differences between products are attributed to climate variability, downscaling methodology and observational uncertainty. The full report, Validation of LOCA2 and STAR-ESDM Statistically Downscaled Products, also provides recommendations to users. The research was funded by DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Earth and Environmental Systems Sciences Division and is available here.
Interagency Steering Committee
Renu Joseph, DOE
Sarah Abdelrahim, Federal Emergency Management Agency
Dan Barrie, NOAA
David Herring, NOAA
Kevin Hiers, DoD’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program and Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (SERDP & ESTCP)
Science Organizing Committee
Daniel Feldman, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Paul Ullrich, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Hugo Lee, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Keith Dixon, NOAA / Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
Tanya Spero, EPA
Workshop Coordinators
Ellen Westfall, ESTCP Climate Resilience / Noblis
Samantha Basile, USGCRP / ICF
Fred Lipschultz, USGCRP
