Spatial and temporal analysis of climate change indices using the Climate Data Analytical Tool and CORDEX datasets over South Asia

About the training

In collaboration with the Met Office, the UK’s national meteorological agency, World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)/Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX), Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), and Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) – Pune, we are organising a four-day regional training on spatial and temporal analysis of climate change indices using the Climate Data Analytical Tool and CORDEX datasets over South Asia.

Supported by the Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC) programme funded by UK Aid, this training will focus on using the Climate Data Analytical Tool to calculate select indices for different sectors – agriculture, health, and water resources – from a list of more than 50 climate indices of selected representative models for a defined area of interest. The tool also allows spatial and temporal analysis of the calculated climate indices.

Objectives

The training aims to build knowledge and skills for calculating and analysing climate indices using ICIMOD’s Climate Data Analytical Tool and CORDEX regional climate model simulations for professionals in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan.

Expected outcomes

This training will help participants calculate the climate indices for their sector of interest, and analyse them to better understand climate change impacts and assess spatial and temporal variability of present and future climate indices over a defined area of interest.

In addition to using the tool to calculate the climate indices, the participants will be able to:

• Select representative models for their defined area of interest
• Extract CORDEX datasets for their area of interest and analyse them separately
• Carry out spatial and temporal visualization of climate indices over their defined area of interest
• Interpret the uncertainty of the selected model results

Participation

This training is being offered to relevant professionals from different national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHS) in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan who have participated in earlier training on CORDEX data access and use.

The training will be held in person in Dhulikhel and at ICIMOD headquarters in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Resources/presentations

Day 1

• Climate services in the HKH region for informed decision making_Mandira Singh Shrestha_ICIMOD
• CORDEX South Asia datasets based climate data indices used in the IPCC WG1 AR6-J Sanjay-IITM
• CORDEX training review_Md Bazlur Rashid_BMD
• CORDEX-training_review_Nirmala Regmi_DHM
• Presentation indices and scenarios_Burhan Ahmad and Shahzada Adnan_PMD
• Selection of representative models for a defined area of interest_Saurav Pradhananga_ICIMOD

Day 2

• Climate indices and bias adjustment_Erik Kjellström_SMHI

Background

The impact of climate change on the climate variable mean happens gradually. However, the impact on the extremes can be seen immediately. In 2021–2022, we organized three country-focussed training on using CORDEX regional climate models to carry out spatial and temporal analysis of climate change over South Asia for professionals from different NMHS in ARRCC focal countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan – under our Climate Services Initiative.

We organized the aforementioned trainings as follow-on training to the Regional climate change projections: Climate change analysis using CORDEX regional climate models over South Asia. These trainings are part of ARRCC’s institutional capacity-building approach to strengthen the knowledge and capabilities of staff working at key national and regional institutions, delivering climate services to provide information needs for informed climate change responses in South Asia.

The training in June 2022 will introduce the Climate Data Analytical Tool and will focus on the calculation and spatial and temporal analysis of climate indices of a few representative models for a defined area of interest.

ARRCC’s institutional capacity-building approach

The knowledge and capabilities of staff working at key national and regional institutions delivering climate services need to be strengthened to provide the information needed for informed climate change responses in South Asia. The ARRCC programme has adopted an institutional capacity-building approach on regional climate projections to help meet this need. The approach targets NMHS and other organisations in the ARRCC focal countries working to provide climate services to government/non-government organisations, communities, and industrial sectors vulnerable to climate change impacts.

A series of training activities will take place between 2020 and 2022 to build the capacities of individuals at targeted institutions to analyse climate projections and produce information products for use in different sectoral applications. The training will be jointly developed and delivered by ICIMOD and the Met Office, with support from other relevant organisations, including the World Climate Research Programme, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) – Pune, where appropriate.