| ABSTRACT | The Phase I CORDEX experiments contain climate downscaling simulations at a grid spacing of about 50 km, but several regional climate modelling groups are also producing output, within the same framework, at the 12 km grid. Climate information in this higher horizontal resolution is in principle more suitable for vulnerability, impact and adaptation (VIA) studies which are already under way given the available access of the CORDEX data through various internet portals. In this work we assess 12 km CORDEX simulations driven by the ERA-Interim re-analyses for the period 1980-2010 with a focus in the eastern Mediterranean, a region that includes the southern Balkans, Anatolia, Cyprus and the Levant coast, with parts of Libya and Egypt. We look at the output of several regional climate model runs available for the EURO-CORDEX domain. The 12 km multi-model climatology, variability, trends and extremes of temperature and precipitation are compared with the respective output of the 50 km runs and corresponding observations, in order to assess the possible added value of the higher resolution datasets. |