Programme streams

UP – Understanding Weather & Climate Processes

Programme Stream Moderators: Frank Beyrich, Barbara Chimani

UPK – Keynote Presentation

Cluster Moderators: Frank Beyrich, Barbara Chimani

UPK.1
Keynote Presentation Understanding Weather & Climate Processes
Co-organized by PSE.keynotes
Convener: Frank Beyrich

UP1 – Atmospheric processes and severe weather

UP1.1

The socio-economic impacts of weather phenomena pose a challenge to carbon-neutral development and highlight society's need for accurate weather forecasts and climate projections. For example, regional weather conditions directly affect renewables-based power systems by modulating power output and demand, and atmospheric extreme events can cause damage or failure of energy infrastructure.

Despite substantial progress in numerical modelling in recent decades, predictability for weather and extreme events is often limited and the assessments of future changes remain uncertain. This underscores the need to improve our understanding of the complex, nonlinear interactions of dynamical and physical processes that influence predictability at different lead times and determine the location, timing, and magnitude of extreme events.

This session will discuss our current understanding of how physical and dynamical processes connect atmospheric motions across temporal and spatial scales and how this relates to intrinsic and practical predictability of various weather phenomena. We particularly welcome contributions advancing our understanding, prediction, and future projections of weather and climate extremes, from both an applied and theoretical viewpoint, and with socio-economic impacts, e.g. on power systems.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:


(1) Synoptic-scale atmospheric dynamics affecting the timing, positioning, and amplitude of weather events (e.g., the stationarity and amplitude of Rossby waves).
(2) Large-scale atmospheric and oceanic influences (e.g., the stratosphere, the Artic, or tropical oceans) on atmospheric variability and predictability in the midlatitudes.
(3) Intrinsic limits of predictability for various atmospheric phenomena and their link to the multi-scale, non-linear nature of atmospheric dynamics.
(4) Practical limits of predictability and the representation of atmospheric phenomena in numerical weather prediction and climate models including sensitivities to the model physics.
(5) Weather and climate extremes, including compound extreme events, their dynamics, predictability, and representation in weather and climate models.
(6) Statistical and mathematical approaches for the study of extreme events.
(7) Impact and risk assessment analyses of extreme events, in particular with a focus on renewable power systems and Europe.
(8) Extreme event attribution and changes in extreme event occurrences under climate change.

Conveners: Davide Faranda, Shira Raveh-Rubin, Christian Grams, Gabriele Messori | Co-convener: Michael Riemer
UP1.2

Atmospheric boundary-layer (ABL) processes and their interactions with the underlying surface are crucial for weather, climate, air-quality and renewable-energy forecasts. The multitude of interacting processes act on a variety of temporal and spatial scales and include atmospheric turbulence, atmosphere-soil-vegetation interactions, gravity waves, boundary-layer interactions with dry and moist convection, mesoscale flows, submeso motions, etc.

Although significant advances have been achieved during the last decades, an appropriate comprehension of ABL processes and their interactions under different conditions is still a challenge in meteorology. Improving this knowledge will help to correctly represent ABL processes in weather and climate models, allowing to provide more accurate numerical weather prediction (NWP) forecasts and climate scenarios.

This session welcomes conceptual, observational and modeling research related to the physical processes that appear in the ABL, including those devoted to study the interactions with the free atmosphere. Current contributions evaluating existing models and schemes are also welcome, as well as the presentation of new implementation in numerical modelling.

The following topics are especially encouraged to be submitted to the session:

• Theoretical and experimental studies of the turbulence-closure problem with emphasis on very stable stratification and convection, accounting for interactions between the mean flow, turbulence, internal waves and large-scale self-organized structures.

• Boundary-layer clouds (including fog) and marine, cloud-topped boundary layers: physics and parameterization within NWP and climate models and observational studies.

• Orographic effects: form drag, wave drag and flow blocking, gravity waves.

• Challenges on the surface energy balance and flux aggregation in atmospheric boundary layers over heterogeneous terrain.

• Representation of boundary layers and land-surface interaction in atmospheric models.

• Organization of deep convection across differing atmospheric scales.

• Large-eddy simulation and direct numerical simulation of turbulent flows.

• PBL and surface-layer studies using long-term data (climatology), detailed analysis of case studies and field campaigns presentation.

Convener: Gert-Jan Steeneveld | Co-conveners: Omar Elguernaoui, Carlos Román-Cascón, Nikki Vercauteren
UP1.3

Atmospheric hazards, for example heavy precipitation or damaging wind gusts, can lead to major material and human losses. Accurately forecasting the meteorological process responsible for the hazard, and the hazard itself, is necessary to protect lives and property. In-depth understanding of these hazards and severe weather phenomena is necessary to accurately represent the relevant processes in models and to forecast them.

With increasing computer power, operational forecast systems have begun to resolve convective scales, yet many hazards are still sub-grid scale phenomena relying on crude parameterizations. However, the promising horizon uncovered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques suggests fruitful synergies between classical computational models and AI to improve severe weather phenomena forecasts.

Furthermore, as our climate changes, certain hazards are likely to become more common and as such an in-depth understanding of how climate change impacts atmospheric hazards is needed.

This session welcomes contributions which increase our understanding of mesoscale and microscale atmospheric processes that might represent a hazard for people, property and the environment. Studies devoted to enhancing our physical and dynamical understanding of severe weather phenomena and their hazards are of particular interest as are contributions incorporating conceptual, observational and modelling research.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
1. Deep convection and related hazards: hail, lightning, tornadoes, waterspouts, derechos and downbursts.
2. Mesoscale cyclones (polar lows, medicanes, tropical-like cyclones, mediterranean cyclones) and related hazards: Flash-floods and heavy rain events, strong winds, floods etc.
3. Orographic flows and related hazards: severe gap, barrier, katabatic and foehn winds
4. Cold season hazards: Freezing rain, icing, intense snow falls, cold extremes, fog
5. Warm season hazards: severe droughts, heatwaves

Convener: Victoria Sinclair | Co-conveners: Francesco Sioni, Dario Giaiotti
UP1.4

This session provides a platform for contributions on high-resolution precipitation measurements, analyses, and applications in real-time as well as climate studies. Special focus is placed on documenting the benefit of highly spatially and temporally resolved observations of different measurement platforms, e.g. satellites and radar networks. This also comprises the growing field of opportunistic sensing such as retrieving rainfall from microwave links. Papers on monitoring and analyzing extreme precipitation events including extreme value statistics, multi-scale analysis, and event-based data analyses are especially welcome, comprising definitions and applications of indices to characterize extreme precipitation events, e.g. in public communication. Contributions on long-term observations of precipitation and correlations to meteorological and non-meteorological data with respect to climate change studies are cordially invited. In addition, contributions on the development and improvement of gridded reference data sets based on in-situ and remote sensing precipitation measurements are welcome.
High-resolution measurements and analyses of precipitation are crucial, especially in urban areas with high vulnerabilities, in order to describe the hydrological response and improve water risk management. Thus, this session also addresses contributions on the application of high-resolution precipitation data in hydrological impact and design studies.

Summarizing, one or more of the following topics shall be addressed:
Precipitation measurement techniques
• High-resolution precipitation observations from different platforms (e.g., gauges, disdrometers, radars, satellites, microwave links) and their combination
• Precipitation reference data sets (e.g., GPCC, OPERA)
• Drought monitoring and impact
• Statistical analysis of extreme precipitation (events)
• Statistical analysis of changes/trends in precipitation totals (monthly, seasonal, annual)
• Multi-scale analysis, including sub-kilometer scale statistical precipitation description and downscaling methods
• Definition and application of indices to characterize extreme precipitation events
• Climate change studies on extreme precipitation (events)
• Urban hydrology and hydrological impact as well as design studies
• New concepts of adaptation to climate change with respect to extreme precipitation in urban areas

Convener: Tanja Winterrath | Co-conveners: Elsa Cattani, Auguste Gires, Katharina Lengfeld, Miloslav Müller
UP1.5

Measurements are essential to provide information on the actual state of the atmosphere for nowcasting purposes, for climate monitoring, for assimilation into numerical weather prediction (NWP) systems and to improve our understanding of atmospheric processes and their role in the climate system. In particular, there is a strong need for complex observations suitable to develop, improve and validate parameterizations used in NWP and climate models and to provide ground-truth against which to compare atmospheric parameters derived from satellite data. With a new generation of high-resolution forecast models (1-3 km) used for the prediction of high-impact weather, dense observational networks focusing on measurements in the lower few kilometers of the atmosphere are required.
This session is intended to give a forum to discuss recent developments and achievements in local to regional measurement concepts and technology. There will be a special emphasis on measurements which seek to improve our understanding of complex atmospheric processes – especially those characterizing interactions in the climate system – through obtaining comprehensive data sets. The focus is on measurements of atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics, energy and water cycle components, and on the interaction of the atmosphere with the underlying surface.
The session will also include consideration of novel measurement approaches and networks under development for future operational use, e.g., within the frame of the Eumetnet observations program and various COST actions (such as PROBE), and the performance of new measurement techniques. Manufacturers of hydro-meteorological instruments and system solutions are thus explicitly invited to present news on sensor development, sensor performance and system integration.
Techniques may cover in-situ and remote sensing measurements from various platforms. Special attention will be given to the creation of a new generation of reliable unmanned instrument networks across Europe that provide calibrated and controlled data on the boundary layer structure in near-real time. This also includes metrological aspects of sensor characterization. Contributions are also invited that make use of advanced data sets for satellite data validation.

Convener: Frank Beyrich | Co-conveners: Jens Bange, Domenico Cimini, Mariska Koning

UP2 – Interactions within the Earth System

UP2.1

Cities and urban environments are a key aspect of the United Nations (UN) Agenda for Sustainable Development, and include scientific and socio-economic perspectives. As urbanisation processes continue across the world, its representation and understanding needs to be further improved to fully assess its impact on weather, air quality, water quality, energy consumption/production and climate. These aspects are crucial both for advancing current knowledge and creating effective sustainable solutions. Key challenges in accomplishing this task vary according to the level of complexity and multi-scale dimension of diverse urban environments.

This session welcomes modelling and observational studies that aim to investigate different aspects of urbanization (e.g. urban heat island, air quality, vulnerability to extreme events, urban/peri-urban agriculture) and its feedback on weather and climate systems, with a particular focus on application for sustainable adaptation plans. Novel methods that aim to assess urban representation and/or to bridge the different scales of the diversity of topologies are encouraged. The impact of cities on weather, air quality, climate and/or their extremes (e.g. drought, precipitation, air pollution episodes), as well as on climate change and on population and adaptation will also be discussed in this session.

Topics may include:
• New urban parameterizations, methods to derive urban parameters for numerical models.
• Implementation of climate mitigations, adaptation strategies (e.g. blue-green infrastructures) and self-government policies in cities and urban context.
• Impact of the different urban parameterizations on the atmospheric dynamics at different scales.
• Impact of the urbanization including estate and industrial on weather and/or climate extremes.
• Field measurements of urban climate, e.g. precipitation, CO2 concentrations and flux, boundary layer characteristics.
• Population vulnerability to urban climate and climate change.
• Extreme events' (e.g. drought, rainfall events, heat wave) impacts on urban areas.
• Urban emissions of climate forcers, air pollutants and anthropogenic heat.
• Urban air quality and meteorological interactions.
• Meteorology or air pollution modelling of all scales with focus on urban areas.
• Coupling and downscaling of global, regional and urban scale modelling approaches to quantify climate and atmospheric composition impacts and feedbacks.
• Integrated monitoring, modelling and forecast systems for urban hazards.
• Urban transition to cleaner fuels and their meteorological or AQ impacts.
• Crowd sourced data/novel data sources in cities
• Successes, challenges and limits of AI approaches for urban research
• Assimilation of 4D data and machine learning applied for air quality simulation
• Social science analyses of cities

Organised jointly with:
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Atmospheric Watch Project GAW Urban Research in Meteorology and Environment (GURME)
WMO World Weather Research Programme (WWRP)

Conveners: Maria de Fatima Andrade, Arianna Valmassoi, Pavol Nejedlik | Co-conveners: Ranjeet Sokhi, K. Heinke Schlünzen, Jan-Peter Schulz
UP2.2

Meteorology and hydrology act in tandem across the interface of the earth's surface. Such an interface will become increasingly important as our understanding and predictive capabilities improve. For the good of society, the need to meld together the two disciplines is now more vital than ever. Many national meteorological services worldwide have, formally or informally, evolved into national hydro-meteorological services. The session, introduced in 2019, aims to provide an all-embracing hydro-meteorological forum where experts from both disciplines can combine and exploit their expertise to accelerate the integration of these two fields. We invite contributions that consider physical or machine learning-based approaches, and act across a wide range of spatial scales (from 10s of meters up to global) and a wide range of time scales (from ~1 hour up to seasonal and climate change), including, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Land-atmosphere interactions and hydrological processes, including feedback mechanisms.
• Understanding the meteorological processes driving hydrological extremes.
• Tools, techniques, and expertise in forecasting hydro-meteorological extremes (e.g., river flooding, flash floods, droughts etc.).
• Fully integrated numerical earth system modelling.
• Quantification/propagation of uncertainties in hydro-meteorological model forecasts.
• The role of vegetation in hydro-meteorological extremes, in terms of transpiration, photosynthesis, phenology, etc.
• Energy cycles, complementing the hydrological cycles and related cryospheric processes.
• Hydro-meteorological prediction that includes impacts.
• Environmental variable monitoring by remote sensing and other observations.
• Quantification of (past/future) hydrological trends in observations and climate models (and their role in the 2024 "climate-neutral Europe" conference theme).

Conveners: Fatima Pillosu, Timothy Hewson | Co-convener: Jan-Peter Schulz
UP2.3

This session is open for abstracts on all aspects of solar and terrestrial radiation, clouds and aerosols. We welcome talks and posters on:
- Observations and measurement campaigns including the observation of optical properties of clouds and aerosols
- Radiative transfer in cloud-free and cloudy atmosphere including three-dimensional aspects and complex topography as well as radiative properties of the surface
- Parametrizations of radiation and clouds
- Modelling of radiation and clouds on all time-scales from nowcasting over short- and medium range numerical weather predication to decadal predictions and climate projections
- Verification of NWP and climate model outputs using satellite and ground-based observations
- Validation of satellite products using ground-based observations
- Use of modelled and observed radiation and cloud data in various applications such as renewable energy and agriculture.

Convener: Stefan Wacker | Co-conveners: Martin Wild, Antti Arola
UP2.4

This session is multi-purpose and aims to connecting various scientist, to promote an integrated and multidisciplinary approach, that works on wide range of atmospheric and oceanographic phenomena, at different temporal and spatial scales in coastal and open-ocean areas. This session will welcome contributions using analysis, observations, numerical and machine learning tools, operational application, and related services.
In general, this session will welcome:
I) Numerical studies and operational application, spanning from uncoupled and coupled numerical models to the Digital-Twins approach, that investigate ocean, atmosphere, waves, sediment and vegetation, in coastal and open ocean areas, from local to synoptic scale and from short to climatological timescales.
II) Observational studies using oceanographic (ARGO floats, Gliders and AUV, buoys, Stereo 3D imaging, operational campaigns, and survey, etc), atmospheric (automatic weather stations, sonic anemometers, disdrometers, etc.) in-situ measurements, ground-based (Coastal High-Frequency Radar (HFR), S, C and X-band weather radar, etc), and space-borne remote sensing techniques (scatterometer, SAR, etc).
III) Application of Machine Learning techniques both in the ocean and atmospheric environment in support of a wide range of applications and research activities (data assimilation systems, ensemble approach and processing, nowcasting numerical schemes, early warning systems, decision, etc).
We invite contributions including, but not limited to, the following topics:
• Intense cyclones, Tropical Cyclones and Tropical-Like Cyclones, Explosive cyclones and polar-low, development, intensification, and the role of air-sea.
• Severe wind and wave storms, Extreme Waves, Storm surges and meteo-tsunami
• Atmosphere-ocean and Ice interaction and their impact on local and global circulation
• Coastal floods and Heavy Precipitation Events (HPEs)
• Sea level oscillations and Sea level future projections
• Cold Air Outbreak, Cold and Dry Spells, and feedback with the atmosphere and ocean
• Marine and Atmospheric Heat Waves and their interaction
• Sea Surface Temperature, Mixed Layer Depth and Ocean Heat Content modification and its impact on the atmosphere on short, seasonal, and climatological scales
• Marine convection, Density currents and Dense and Deep Water Formation.
• Coastal circulation and Sediment dynamic

Conveners: Antonio Ricchi, Rossella Ferretti | Co-conveners: Aida Alvera-Azcárate, Vincenzo Capozzi, Clea Denamiel, Paola de Ruggiero
UP2.5

The exchange of matter and energy between land surfaces and the atmosphere plays a crucial role in determining the atmospheric budget of various chemical species, alongside their production, consumption, and transport processes. The understanding and quantification of the deposition rates of atmospheric pollutants is key to effective environmental conservation policies, as the assessment of emissions is for effective mitigation plans.
Modelers aim to identify appropriate values of deposition velocity and/or emission factors for different chemical species, as well as to establish relationships to link these factors to surface characteristics and environmental parameters. Complex relationships can be envisaged when the exchanging surfaces are vegetated and when plant physiology and phenology should be considered.
Experimentalists are committed to characterize dry deposition and emissions from different land covers and environmental conditions, and to distinguish between stomatal and non-stomatal processes. Additionally, they need to assess the turbulent mixing between below and above canopy air masses in order to ensure that their measurements above canopy, commonly conducted via the eddy covariance method, are truly representative of the matter and energy actually exchanged by the ecosystems. Finally, they are trying to extend their measurements in time as long as possible in order to capture signals of responses to climate change. The current scarcity of datasets of direct measurements of atmospheric deposition is a major limitation on the development of deposition models, from local to regional and trans-boundary scales.
This session focusses on biosphere-atmosphere exchange dynamics of GHG, atmospheric pollutants (both gaseous and PM) and water, and welcomes contributions on dry and wet deposition; studies on emissions from different anthropogenic sources or landscapes; surface-atmosphere bi-directional exchange processes, including soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer, from both an experimental and a modelling perspective.
We solicit contributions describing innovative studies, approaches, data processing techniques and modelling tools, to improve the understanding of land-atmosphere interaction with meteorology and climate and supporting operational applications.

Convener: Giacomo Alessandro Gerosa | Co-conveners: Paola Crippa, Georg Jocher, Daniela Famulari
UP2.6

The cryosphere, a critical component of the Earth system, is experiencing significant changes due to climate forcing. While global warming is the overarching driver, the rates, impacts, and processes vary in mountain and Polar regions. Understanding climate-cryosphere interactions across different spatial and temporal scales is essential for estimating the global cryosphere's response to climate change and the consequent impact on other climate system components.

Mountain Regions: In mountainous areas, the cryosphere encompasses seasonal snow cover, glaciers, permafrost, and ice deposits in caves. These elements influence the hydrology of numerous river systems, crucial for water availability, especially in arid high mountain regions. Despite their smaller water volume compared to polar regions, glacier mass loss significantly contributes to rising sea levels. Permafrost degradation poses risks to rock stability and increases the potential for natural hazards. Even the lesser-known permanent ice deposits in caves store vital paleoenvironmental information. Investigating micro-climates over snow and ice surfaces and their links to large-scale weather conditions is crucial for understanding the mass and energy balance of the mountain cryosphere.

Polar Regions: Polar regions exhibit high sensitivity to climate change, exemplified by Arctic amplification. Changes in sea ice and ice sheets in both poles impact global climate through alterations in atmospheric and ocean circulation, sea level, albedo, vegetation, and related feedbacks. The Arctic has witnessed a sharp decline in sea ice extent and volume, with the Greenland Ice Sheet losing mass rapidly. Antarctica, too, shows declining sea ice extent, with unclear signs of recovery. Contrasting trends in the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet in its eastern and western parts add complexity. The impacts of these changes in the polar cryosphere on large-scale climate variability through atmospheric and oceanic pathways are uncertain.

Session: This session invites contributions addressing all aspects of cold regions' meteorology and the cryosphere interacting with the past, present, and future climate system from both modeling and observations. We encourage submissions from multiple approaches, i.e. past records, meteorological and geophysical observations, numerical modeling, and downscaling methods aiming to advance the current knowledge of the feedback between the cryosphere and the climate system. Presentations of interdisciplinary studies, as well as detailed process surveys, are highly welcome.

Conveners: Renato R. Colucci, Bianca Mezzina, Andrea Securo, Andrea Fischer
UP2.7

This session welcomes contributions on atmospheric processes over mountainous regions on all time and spatial scales, with a focus on exchange processes between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. These include, but are not limited to, processes in the Mountain Boundary Layer (MoBL) and related turbulence characteristics, thermally- and dynamically-driven mountain winds, orographic clouds and precipitation, climate change and variability. Numerical modeling (numerical weather prediction, data assimilation, model evaluation studies) of these processes and specific challenges related to complex terrain are equally invited as applications (e.g., hydrology, air quality, fire dynamics, and renewable energy). We especially invite contributions from recent projects and measurement campaigns on mountain weather and climate, in particular within the international research programme TEAMx (http://www.teamx-programme.org/).

Conveners: Dino Zardi, Mathias Rotach, Chantal Staquet | Co-conveners: Brigitta Goger, Bianca Adler
UP2.9

This session is open for abstracts on all aspects related with aerosol measurements and their interactions with clouds and solar radiation. It includes measurement calibration techniques and satellite calibration validation studies. It includes, but is not limited to, contributions from the Harmonia Cost Action Community. More specific deals with:
- Aerosol measurement Harmonization activities and improvements
- Observations and measurement campaigns including the observation of optical properties of aerosols
- Radiative transfer in cloud-free and cloudy atmosphere including three-dimensional modeling aspects
- Validation of satellite products using ground-based observations
- Aerosol effects in solar energy production

Conveners: Stelios Kazadzis, Kyriakoula Papachristopoulou, Lionel Doppler

UP3 – Climate modelling, analyses and predictions

UP3.1

Society will feel the impacts of climate change mainly through extreme weather and climate events, such as heat waves and droughts, heavy rainfall and associated flooding, and extreme winds. Determining from the observational record whether there have been significant changes in the frequency, amplitude and persistence of extreme events poses considerable challenges. Changes in the distributional tails of climate variables may not necessarily be coherent with the changes in their mean values. Also, attributing any such changes to natural or anthropogenic drivers is a challenge.

The aim of this session will be studies that bridge the spatial scales and reach the timescales of extreme events that impact all our lives. Papers are solicited on advancing the understanding of causes of observed changes in mean climate, in its variability and in the frequency and intensity of extreme events. In particular, papers are invited on trends in the regional climate of Europe, not just the mean, but variability and extremes, often for the latter measured through well-chosen indices.

Convener: Martine Rebetez | Co-conveners: Albert M.G. Klein Tank, Monika Lakatos, Gudrun Nina Petersen
UP3.2

Covariability between remote regions – often named teleconnections – are at the basis of our current knowledge of a large part of Earth’s climate variations and represent an important source of weather and climate predictability. Tropospheric and stratospheric pathways have been suggested to play a role in connecting internally-generated and radiatively-forced anomalies at mid-latitudes, as well as in settling tropical-extratropical and polar-nonpolar interactions. However, the underlying processes behind these linkages are still not properly understood, misled by different metrics and diagnostics, and/or generally poorly simulated by global climate models (GCMs). A continuous assessment of these atmospheric teleconnections is thus necessary, since advances in process understanding could translate into improving climate models and predictions.

This session aims at gathering studies on both empirical and modelling approaches, dealing with a dynamical characterization of mid-latitude atmospheric teleconnections. It invites contributions using observational datasets; coupled and uncoupled (atmosphere-only) GCM simulations; pre-industrial, present, and future climate conditions; idealised sensitivity experiments; or theoretical models.

Keynote talk:

TBD - ""

Convener: Javier Garcia-Serrano | Co-conveners: Paolo Ruggieri, Yannick Peings
UP3.3

Synoptic climatology examines all aspects of relationships between large-scale atmospheric circulation on one side, and surface climate and environmental variables on the other. The session addresses all topics of synoptic climatology; nevertheless, we would like to concentrate on the following areas: statistical (empirical) downscaling, circulation and weather classifications, teleconnections and circulation regimes, and climatology of cyclones and other pressure formations, including effects of the circulation features on surface climate conditions. We also encourage submissions on recent climate variability and change studied by tools of synoptic climatology or otherwise related to synoptic-climatological concepts.

We invite contributions on theoretical developments of classification methods as well as on their use in various tasks of atmospheric sciences, such as climate zonation, identification and analysis of circulation and weather types, and synoptic catalogues. Climatological, meteorological, and environmental applications of circulation classifications are particularly welcome.

The session will also include presentations on statistical (empirical) downscaling as a tool for evaluation and reconstruction of historical climate, gap filling in time series, analysis of extremes and non-climatic variables. Also intercomparisons among downscaling methods and their validation belong to this session.

Contributions on teleconnections (modes of low-frequency variability) and circulation regimes are expected to cover particularly their impacts on surface weather, climate, and environment.

The contributions on climatology of cyclones and other pressure formations will include analyses of cyclone tracks, life time and intensity of cyclones, as well as analyses of anticyclones and blockings. We also invite studies on impacts of the pressure formations on the environment and society, their relationships with large scale circulation patterns, as well as analyses of their recent trends and behavior in possible future climates.

Conveners: Radan Huth, Rasmus Benestad
UP3.4

The exceptional amplitude and rate of warming recorded at global, hemispherical and regional scales within contemporary instrumental records should be placed in the context of longer-term multi-centennial and millennial climate variability in order to both assess its uniqueness and better understand the mechanisms that contribute to the background of natural climate variability. Systematic meteorological measurements only span over a relatively short time interval. Thus, documentary evidence and natural climate proxies are used for the reconstruction and understanding of longer term past climate variability.

This session welcomes presentations related to various topics related to this frame:
• early instrumental meteorological measurements, their history and use for the long-term series
• documentary evidence and its features (advantages, disadvantages limits)
• natural climate proxies and its features (advantages, disadvantages, limits)
• methodological improvements and analysis of climate reconstruction approaches both from documentary evidence and natural climatic proxies
• results of climate reconstructions over different regions based on various climatic sources
• hydrological and meteorological extremes (e.g. floods, hurricanes, windstorms, tornadoes, hailstorms, frosts) and their human impacts in relation to climate variability beyond the instrumental period.
• climate modelling of the last 2K and comparison of model outputs with reconstructed/observed climatological data
• past impacts of climate variability on natural processes and human society
• past and recent perception of the climate and its variability
• history of meteorology and meteorological and climatological knowledge
• discussion of natural and anthropogenic forcings as well as recent warming at global, regional and local scales in a long-term context.

Convener: Rudolf Brazdil | Co-conveners: Ricardo García-Herrera, Fidel González-Rouco
UP3.5

The warming trends detected in the observational record and future projections, accompanied by an increase in hydrological droughts, have designated the Mediterranean basin as one of the most responsive regions to global climate change. As the warming is expected to continue and intensify in the next decades, local communities and decision-makers call for improved climate information that would allow adaptation to changing climate conditions. In recent years, record-breaking temperatures have been registered –with annual-mean anomalies reaching up to 2.5 °C in mountainous regions during 2022 and 2023– together with large rainfall deficits impacting on different socio-economic activities and causing environmental damage over the western Mediterranean basin. In this context, a better understanding of the physical mechanisms driving long-term changes in the Mediterranean region, along with a comprehensive assessment of climate simulations, are crucial to increase our confidence in future projections and better estimate the climate risk.
This session aims to present the latest advances in studying the Mediterranean climate change, including the use of innovative approaches for the attribution of climatic trends and events and for process-based model evaluation. Studies of past long-term changes and future projections focused on validating simulated climate variability across time scales and reducing uncertainty are particularly encouraged. Analyses of specific climate hazards and the associated atmospheric circulation (including extremes, teleconnection patterns, and regional-to-local responses) are also welcome.

Conveners: Matias Olmo, Ileana Bladé, Vicent Altava-Ortiz, Annalisa Cherchi
UP3.6

Climate reanalyses provide a description the of past weather by retrospectively assimilating reprocessed observational datasets ranging from surface stations and satellites with an up-to-date Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model. The resulting time series of the atmospheric state is both dynamically consistent and close to observations. A reanalysis typically provides a broad set of atmospheric parameters, containing near surface parameters, (as e.g. temperature and precipitation), as well as parameters at several altitudes (as e.g. wind).

Regional reanalyses are now available for Europe and specific sub-domains, e.g. produced by national meteorological services. Global and regional reanalyses are an important element of the Copernicus Climate Change Services.

The interest in extracting climate information from reanalysis is rising and they are used in a wide range of applications. Due to their frequent use in energy meteorology, they also play a key role for this year's conference theme “weather and climate research in the achievement of a climate-neutral Europe”. Recently, it has become apparent that reanalyses are a popular basis for training in machine learning methods that enable successful AI-based weather forecasts, for example.

This session invites papers that:
• Present the status of reanalysis activities in Europe and beyond.
• Explore and demonstrate the capability of global and regional reanalysis data for climate applications, including energy applications.
• Illustrate the role of reanalysis data for machine learning and artificial intelligence.
• Compare different reanalysis (global, regional) with each other and/or observations
• Improve recovery, quality control and uncertainty estimation of related observations
• Analyse the uncertainty budget of the reanalyses and relate to user applications

Convener: Frank Kaspar | Co-conveners: Eric Bazile, Jan Keller