Spatially comprehensive representations of past weather and climate, for example in the form of gridded datasets, are an important basis for analyzing climate variations and for modelling weather-related impacts on the environment and natural resources. They are also indispensable for validation and downscaling of climate models. Increasing demands for, and widespread application of grid data, call for efficient methods of spatial analysis from observations, and profound knowledge of the potential and limitations of these datasets in applications. At the same time, the growing pool of observational data (radar data, satellite based data…) offers the opportunity to improve the accuracy and reduce uncertainty of gridded climate data. Modern spatial climatology therefore deals with a wide range of space and time scales. As a result, actual developments in the field are concerned with a range of challenging issues. These include for example the spatial characteristics and representation of extremes, the representation of small-scale processes (auxiliary variables), the integration of several observational data sources (e.g. station, radar, satellite, re-analysis data), the quantification of uncertainties, the analysis at sub-daily time scales, and the long-term consistency as well as cross-variable consistency in grid datasets.

This session addresses topics related to the development, production, quality assessment and application of gridded climate data with an emphasis on statistical methods for spatial analysis and interpolation applied on observational data. Contributions dealing with modern methodological challenges and applications giving pertinent insights are particularly encouraged. Spatial analysis by applying e.g. GIS is a very strong tool for visualizing and disseminating climate information. Examples showing developments, application and dissemination of products from such analyses for climate services are also very 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.