Primavera – Higher resolution in global climate models

The project will develop a new generation of advanced and evaluated high-resolution global climate models, which are able to simulate and predict regional climate with unsurpassed accuracy - indispensable for governments, business and society in general.

At the moment, global climate modelling often uses a scale with 100 km resolution. The aim of the PRIMAVERA project is to produce a new generation of high-resolution global climate models. Researchers have refined the horizontal resolution in global climate models to 25-40 km.

SMHI researchers are going to analyse how such a high resolution in climate models can improve the representation of processes that affect the climate, and more specifically on their impact for the climate in Europe. The research team will work with the North Atlantic oscillation, the relationship between the Arctic ice sheet and European climate and extreme weather events around Europe, to give some examples.

PRIMAVERA is managed by the University of Reading, UK. A total of 19 different European research groups will participate in the project. SMHI and the Department of Meteorology at Stockholm University will be participating from Sweden. The project is funded by the EU's Horizon 2020 research programme.