Gridded representation of past and future weather and climate with high spatial and temporal resolution is getting more and more important for assessing the variability of and impact of weather and climate on various environmental and social phenomena. They are also indispensable as validation and calibration input for climate models. This increased demand requires new efficient methods and approaches for estimating spatially distributed climate data as well as new efficient applications for managing and analyzing climatological and meteorological information at different temporal and spatial scales. This session addresses topics related to generation and application of gridded climate data with an emphasis on statistical methods for spatial analysis and spatial interpolation applied on observational data.

An important aspect in this respect is the creation and further use of reference climatologies. The new figures calculated for the latest normal period 1981-2010 are now recommended as reference period for assessments of regional and local climatologies. For this period new observation types (e.g. satellite and radar data) are available, and contributions taking advantage of multiple data sources are encouraged.

Spatial analysis using e.g. GIS is a very strong tool for visualizing and disseminating climate information. Examples showing developments, application and products of such analysis for climate services are particularly welcome.

The session intends to bring together experts, scientists and other interested people analyzing spatio-temporal characteristics of climatological elements, including spatial interpolation and GIS modeling within meteorology, climatology and other related environmental sciences.