title: A review on regional convection-permitting climate modeling: Demonstrations, prospects, and challenges.
abstract: Regional climate modeling using convection-permitting models (CPMs; horizontal grid spacing <4 km) emerges as a promising framework to provide more reliable climate information on regional to local scales compared to traditionally used large-scale models (LSMs; horizontal grid spacing >10 km). CPMs no longer rely on convection parameterization schemes, which had been identified as a major source of errors and uncertainties in LSMs. Moreover, CPMs allow for a more accurate representation of surface and orography fields. The drawback of CPMs is the high demand on computational resources. For this reason, first CPM climate simulations only appeared a decade ago. In this study, we aim to provide a common basis for CPM climate simulations by giving a holistic review of the topic. The most important components in CPMs such as physical parameterizations and dynamical formulations are discussed critically. An overview of weaknesses and an outlook on required future developments is provided. Most importantly, this review presents the consolidated outcome of studies that addressed the added value of CPM climate simulations compared to LSMs. Improvements are evident mostly for climate statistics related to deep convection, mountainous regions, or extreme events. The climate change signals of CPM simulations suggest an increase in flash floods, changes in hail storm characteristics, and reductions in the snowpack over mountains. In conclusion, CPMs are a very promising tool for future climate research. However, coordinated modeling programs are crucially needed to advance parameterizations of unresolved physics and to assess the full potential of CPMs.
authors.affiliation: National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder Colorado USA; Wegener Center for Global and Climate Change (WEGC) University of Graz Graz Austria.
authors.forename: Andreas F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Prein
authors.affiliation: Earth Sciences Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley California USA.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Langhans
authors.affiliation: Météo-France/CNRS CNRM-GAME Toulouse France.
authors.forename: Giorgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fosser
authors.affiliation: Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Environmental Research and Innovation Department Environmental Resource Center Belvaux Luxembourg.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferrone
authors.affiliation: Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science ETH Zurich Zurich Switzerland.
authors.forename: Nikolina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ban
authors.affiliation: Meteorological Institute University of Bonn Bonn Germany; Jülich Supercomputing Centre Research Centre Jülich Jülich Germany; Centre for High-Performance Scientific Computing in Terrestrial Systems ABC/J Geoverbund Jülich Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Goergen
authors.affiliation: Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science ETH Zurich Zurich Switzerland; Center for Climate Systems Modeling ETH Zurich Zurich Switzerland.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geography Justus-Liebig Universität Gießen Giessen Germany.
authors.forename: Merja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tölle
authors.affiliation: Regional and Environmental Sciences, Department of Environmental Meteorology University of Trier Trier Germany.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gutjahr
authors.affiliation: Institute for Coastal Research Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Centre for Materials and Coastal Research Geesthacht Germany.
authors.forename: Frauke
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Feser
authors.affiliation: Institut für Atmosphäre und Umwelt Goethe-Universitt Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt Germany.
authors.forename: Erwan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brisson
authors.affiliation: Centre for High-Performance Scientific Computing in Terrestrial Systems ABC/J Geoverbund Jülich Germany; Agrosphere (IBG-3) Research Centre Jülich Jülich Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kollet
authors.affiliation: Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science ETH Zurich Zurich Switzerland; Center for Climate Systems Modeling ETH Zurich Zurich Switzerland.
authors.forename: Juerg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schmidli
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences KU Leuven Leuven Belgium.
authors.forename: Nicole P M
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: van Lipzig
authors.affiliation: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Richland Washington USA.
authors.forename: Ruby
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Leung
keywords: added value; climate; cloud resolving; convection‐permitting modeling; high resolution; nonhydrostatic modeling