Climate and weather models must span a global domain, necessitating a coarse spatial grid; however, most applications of those models need data at highly local spatial scales. In addition, these models have biases that preclude their direct application for some uses. Because of these mismatches, many different approaches have been developed to make climate and weather model output more useful and usable for hydrologic purposes. Statistical and dynamical downscaling and post-processing methods – and hybrid methods – allow these model outputs to better resolve features such as mountains, coastal boundaries and other hydroclimatic features. In addition, careful evaluation of their historical skill in current climate, statistical reliability for weather forecasts, and diagnosis of their representation of future changes are critical, and bias correction may be necessary for their application. Finally, understanding gained through applications of downscaled products provides key feedback between users and developers of the models and methods.  We invite presentations on the development of downscaling models and datasets, post-processing and bias correction techniques, evaluations of different methods, and applications of downscaled products.

Submitters:  Naomi Goldenson, Seattle, WA; Mimi R. Hughes, ESRL/Physical Sciences Laboratory, NOAA, Boulder, CO; Ethan D. Gutmann, NCAR, Boulder, CO; Rachel R. McCrary, RAL, NCAR, Fort Collins, CO and Daniel Feldman, LBNL, Berkeley, CA