Regional Climate Research Group

Projects

ARA – High resolution Austrian Re-analysis ensemble with AROME

Atmospheric re-analysis products have already proven to be an important source of information for a better understanding of the Earth system in the past and have been used in many projects in the field of climate monitoring and climate change. The ARA project aims to create a high-resolution re-analysis ensemble dataset for Austria for the first time. Once completed, this dataset will provide detailed information (2D and 3D) on the state of the atmosphere for the period 2010-2020, which has the potential to be developed into an operational or commercial product at a later date.

Funded by the Austrian Science Promotion Agency (ASAP).

Team (Wegener Center): Heimo Truhetz

CHIANTI – Combining High resolutIon GCMS And coNvection permiTting downscalIng - a new approach to improve the representation of severe future weather

To model changes in extreme summer rainfall, high-resolution global climate models are needed to represent the associated circulation, and regional climate models that can represent convection are needed to represent the convective process. Since there is no combination of the two approaches, CHIANTI is developing a statistical emulator that combines the GCM and RCM simulations. This approach will be applied to generate a new ensemble of regional climate projections for Central Europe. The results will be used to investigate the future urban flood risk in Graz.

Funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund (ACRP12).

Team (Wegener Center): Douglas Maraun, Nicole Ritzhaupt, Aditya Mishra

DISCC-AT - Assessing the DIStributional effects of Climate Change impacts and adaptation in AusTria, for just, targeted and efficient adaptation

The aim of DISCC-AT is to inform decision-makers in Austria about group-specific social vulnerabilities to the main climate risks - floods and heat-related health risks - as well as the distributional effects of climate change impacts and adaptation at the national level. This will enable the implementation of equitable and cost-effective adaptation measures, including strengthening adaptation capacities where they are most needed. To achieve this goal, DISCC-AT follows an inter- and transdisciplinary approach that combines qualitative and quantitative methods and is embedded in a broad stakeholder process.

Funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund (project no. C264882, ACRP14).

Team (Wegener Center): Gabriel Bachner, Martin Jury, Nina Knittel, Eva Preinfalk, Alexander Marbler

HighResMountains – Mountain weather in high-resolution climate data: How will the new generation of ÖKS benefit from new emerging datasets?

The main goal of HighResMountains is to gain a deeper understanding of extreme events and their processes and changes with further warming of the atmosphere over the Alps. The focus is on precipitation (rain and snow) and mountain wind systems (such as Föhn), which will be analyzed in various new high-resolution data sets. The main results of the project will provide relevant information and guidelines on methodological constraints for the development of new Austrian climate scenarios.

Funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund (ACRP14).

Team (Wegener Center): Douglas Maraun (lead), Isabella Kohlhauser

iKlimEt – Optimization and machine learning for integrated climate and energy system models

The iKlimEt research project is developing cutting-edge open-source simulation tools for integrated energy system planning, taking into account climate change impacts and extreme events.

Funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) (project no. 52874386).

Team (Wegener Center): Birgit Bednar-Friedl, Douglas Maraun, Keith Williges, Nicole Ritzhaupt

INTERACT – Interactions across scales shaping frontal weather extremes in a changing climate

Despite their importance for extreme events, the study of fronts in a changing climate is still in its infancy. The main objective of INTERACT is to understand the role of fronts in the scale interactions that determine extreme events in a changing climate. To achieve this goal, INTERACT is working with two Russian partner institutions to answer the following research questions:

  • How are regional extreme events associated with fronts controlled by the internal variability and interaction of planetary, synoptic and mesoscale frontal dynamics?
  • How realistically are these phenomena, their interaction and their influence on extreme events simulated by a hierarchy of climate models, including the added value of high resolution?
  • How do these phenomena, their interaction and the associated extreme events change in a warming climate?

Funded by the Austrian Science Fund.

Team (Wegener Center): Douglas Maraun, Tobias Lichtenegger, Armin Schaffer

PREVAL ÖKS NEXTGEN – Processed based climate model evaluations over Austria for informing the next generation of Austrian climate scenarios

PREVAL ÖKS NEXTGEN emerged from the community process in the context of the planned update of the Austrian Climate Scenarios (ÖKS). The main objective of the project is to accompany the development of ÖKS, in particular to (1) ensure a process that takes into account a wide range of user needs and values, (2) provide information for the selection of model ensembles and individual models, and (3) provide information on the design of a meaningful bias adjustment and statistical downscaling strategy.

Funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund (ACRP14).

Team (Wegener Center): Martin Jury, Thomas Kroissenbrunner

STREAM: STorylines of Danube stREAMflow – Assessing future streamflow for different atmospheric circulation responses to greenhouse gas forcing

The Danube plays a crucial role for the economy and ecology of its riparian states. The latest climate model projections show greater warming in summer and a greater decrease in summer precipitation in Central Europe than previous models. Accordingly, the first simulations of the hydrological effects for the Danube showed a greater decrease in runoff in summer and fall than earlier simulations. The STREAM project deals with these future climate situations and the associated range of regional impacts.

Funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund (ACRP14).

Team (Wegener Center): Albert Osso Castillon, Leah Holzer