SESSION 1
Observing and understanding the processes relevant for the Mediterranean climate system, including new approaches in theory and observations
Conveners: Ileana Bladé (University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain) , Katrin Schroeder (ISMAR-CNR, Venice, Italy)
The climate of the Mediterranean is the result of complex interactions that involve local processes, large-scale dynamical factors and atmospheric as well as oceanic teleconnections, in addition to being influenced by a complex orography. Understanding the Mediterranean climate, its natural variability and how its responds to both natural and anthropogenic forcing, thus requires examining a wide range of spatial and temporal scales and of climate system interactions. The session will review available climate observations and climate modelling tools (both global and regional) , assess the main local and remote processes that influence the climate of the Mediterranean and address the predictability of Mediterranean climate on time scales from intra-seasonal to centennial along with associated uncertainties.