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:

  1. Facilitate discussion between researchers, data producers, end users, and interagency representatives in government, academia, and industry.
  2. Consolidate and synthesize information across communities of practice to identify the current state of practice and science for decision-relevant regional climate projections.
  3. 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. 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

The hybrid workshop will last two and a half days and 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 the workshop agenda here. 
 

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.

 

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 
Huikyo 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