The atmospheric dynamics is essentially the manifestation of a global machinery, within which larger scales are mostly conditioning smaller scales (the downscaling concept), and local processes feedback on the global scale in a statistical sense, often described by parameterizations.
However, the regional and local scales matter in terms of the impact of climate and weather on people and ecosystems. Therefore, the scientific development in the last years was mostly in two directions – towards global Earth system models, and towards the description of regional and local dynamics, and more and more so on the regional and local impact of climate and climate change. The present Research Topic deals with the latter.
Models describing the regional dynamics, and the links to supra-regional conditioning states, usually serve one of the following purposes: description of climate and its change; description of air quality and its change; reconstruction and analysis of past conditions, both in historical times and in Earth history; forecasting short term development; ensemble experiments; and process studies. Also, the issue what climate and climate events mean for social and economic life as well as ecosystem functioning comes to the fore. We ask for contributions in all these fields. A significant issue could be the challenge of detection of regional climate change and attribution of such change to a most plausible cause.
We ask for regional studies, covering several hundred kilometers of diameters but also “local studies”, in particular of urban conglomerates. Most approaches make use of limited area models, but some studies are making use of variable-resolution models and high-resolution global models, which are however constrained on the large scales so that they complement a global forcing (available from analysis systems) with regional or even local detail. On the other end of resolution are convection-permitting models of interest.
While some studies are mostly focusing on dynamical aspects, such as the conditioning of regional and local processes by large-scale conditions and forcing (e.g., changing land-use), other concentrate on impacts, both on geophysical conditions (e.g., ocean waves and storm surges), components of the ecological systems (e.g., vegetation, algae blooms), but also on societal aspects (such as hazards related to extreme events).
The atmospheric dynamics is essentially the manifestation of a global machinery, within which larger scales are mostly conditioning smaller scales (the downscaling concept), and local processes feedback on the global scale in a statistical sense, often described by parameterizations.
However, the regional and local scales matter in terms of the impact of climate and weather on people and ecosystems. Therefore, the scientific development in the last years was mostly in two directions – towards global Earth system models, and towards the description of regional and local dynamics, and more and more so on the regional and local impact of climate and climate change. The present Research Topic deals with the latter.
Models describing the regional dynamics, and the links to supra-regional conditioning states, usually serve one of the following purposes: description of climate and its change; description of air quality and its change; reconstruction and analysis of past conditions, both in historical times and in Earth history; forecasting short term development; ensemble experiments; and process studies. Also, the issue what climate and climate events mean for social and economic life as well as ecosystem functioning comes to the fore. We ask for contributions in all these fields. A significant issue could be the challenge of detection of regional climate change and attribution of such change to a most plausible cause.
We ask for regional studies, covering several hundred kilometers of diameters but also “local studies”, in particular of urban conglomerates. Most approaches make use of limited area models, but some studies are making use of variable-resolution models and high-resolution global models, which are however constrained on the large scales so that they complement a global forcing (available from analysis systems) with regional or even local detail. On the other end of resolution are convection-permitting models of interest.
While some studies are mostly focusing on dynamical aspects, such as the conditioning of regional and local processes by large-scale conditions and forcing (e.g., changing land-use), other concentrate on impacts, both on geophysical conditions (e.g., ocean waves and storm surges), components of the ecological systems (e.g., vegetation, algae blooms), but also on societal aspects (such as hazards related to extreme events).