There is an increased need for information about past and future weather and climate with high spatial and temporal resolution. Such information is important for assessing the variability and impact of weather and climate on various environmental and social phenomena and is 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 analysing climatological and meteorological information at different temporal and spatial scales. An important aspect in this respect is the creation and further use of reference climatologies. The new figures calculated for the latest WMO normal period 1981-2010 should from now on serve as the 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.

The aim of this session is to bring together experts, scientists and other interested people analysing spatio-temporal characteristics of climatological elements, including spatial interpolation and GIS modelling within meteorology, climatology and other related environmental sciences.

Contributions on the following topics are invited:
• Derivation of new normal values for 1981-2010.
• Data processing and method-development for establishing climatological reference values and maps.
• Progress, limitations and possibilities in spatial interpolation methods for (meteorological and)
climatological variables.
• Use of multiple observations, including remote sensing to add value to climatological datasets and products.
• Examples of user applications on climate sensitivity applying reference climatologies as basis.
• GIS - based tools and methods for atmospheric data modelling, processing, integration, and analysis
• GIS applications in climatology and meteorology, including contributions on weather observations and prediction as well as global climate modelling
• GIS based applications for generating local climate change scenarios (based on the local and global input data - downscaling)
• Applications in linking meteorological and climatological information to other Earth sciences (e.g. hydrology, oceanography, biology) and social sciences
• Gridded climatological databases: structures and methods for grid calculations
• Applications and examples of good practices in the integration of spatial data from different sources and different measuring techniques (including remote sensing data)