Characterization of the skill of the CORDEX-Africa regional climate models to simulate regional climate setting in the East African Transboundary Omo Gibe River Basin, Ethiopia

A recent study evaluated the performance of ten regional climate models (RCMs) from the CORDEX-Africa initiative in simulating climatic conditions across the East African Transboundary Omo Gibe River Basin, Ethiopia. The research found that while RCMs vary significantly in their ability to replicate climatic variables, ensembles and specific models like RACMO22T (EC-EARTH) effectively captured average annual precipitation distribution. CCLM4-8-17 (MPI) and its ensemble performed well in replicating annual precipitation magnitudes despite discrepancies. All models accurately simulated seasonal precipitation patterns, with some models like RCA4 (CNRM) and REMO2009 (MPI) showing superior performance. The study also highlighted that interannual and seasonal rainfall variations were more pronounced than temperature variations, with a strong correlation between actual and simulated precipitation at multiple monitoring sites. Notably, the RCA4 (MIROC5) model was effective in reproducing extreme precipitation events, though all models tended to overestimate their return periods. The research underscores the importance of selecting reliable RCMs and using ensemble means of top-performing models, following systematic bias adjustment, for specific applications.

Mathewos, Y., Abate, B., & Dadi, M. (2023). Characterization of the skill of the CORDEX-Africa regional climate models to simulate regional climate setting in the East African Transboundary Omo Gibe River Basin, Ethiopia. Heliyon, 9(10), e20379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20379