Geyer et al. (2026) Optimisation of ICON-CLM for the EURO-CORDEX domain: developments, sensitivities, tuning

Identification

• Journal: Geoscientific model development
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-06-24
• Authors: Beate Geyer, Angelo Campanale, Evgenii Churiulin, Hendrik Feldmann, Klaus Goergen, Stefan Hagemann, Ha Thi Minh Ho-Hagemann, M. M. Karadan, Klaus Keuler, Pavel Khain, Divyaja Lawand, Patrick Ludwig, Vera Maurer, Sergei Petrov, Stefan Poll, Christopher Purr, Emmanuele Russo, Martina Schubert‐Frisius, Jan-Peter Schulz, Shweta Singh, Christian Steger, Heimo Truhetz, Andreas Will
• DOI: 10.5194/gmd-19-5439-2026

Research Groups

• Institute of Coastal Systems, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Geesthacht, Germany
• Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC Foundation), Caserta, Italy
• Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research Troposphere Research (IMKTRO), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
• Fachgebiet Atmosphärische Prozesse, Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg, Cottbus, Germany
• Israel Meteorological Service, Bet-Dagan, Israel
• Deutscher Wetterdienst, Offenbach am Main, Germany
• ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
• GERICS, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Geesthacht, Germany
• Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change (WEGC), University of Graz, Graz, Austria

Short Summary

This study presents a systematic regional climate model tuning strategy using a novel methodology to optimise the ICON-CLM configuration for the EURO-CORDEX domain. The main finding is that the Linear Meta-Model optimisation (LiMMo) method allows for fine-tuning of the model configuration with explicit control over the tuning process, making parameter combinations more efficient.

Objective

• To develop a comprehensive tuning procedure to optimise the ICON-CLM model quality for regional climate simulations.
• To evaluate the performance of different tuning methods and identify the most effective approach.
• To provide an optimum ICON-CLM regional climate simulation configuration for the EURO-CORDEX domain.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: The study focuses on the European domain, with a resolution of 0.11° (approx. 12 km).
• Temporal Scale: The simulations were conducted over a period of several years to assess the model's performance in capturing long-term climate variability.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: ICON-CLM regional climate model.
• Data sources: ERA5 reanalysis data, observational datasets, and high-quality external datasets (e.g., soil data, aerosols).

Main Results

• The study presents the results of sensitivity tests, expert tuning, and LiMMo optimisation to derive an optimum ICON-CLM configuration for the EURO-CORDEX domain.
• The LiMMo method allowed for fine-tuning of the model configuration with explicit control over the tuning process, making parameter combinations more efficient.
• The study highlights the importance of using high-quality observational datasets and external data sources in the tuning process.

Contributions

• This study contributes to the development of a comprehensive tuning procedure for regional climate models, which is essential for improving the accuracy of climate projections.
• The LiMMo method presented in this study can be applied to other regional climate models to improve their performance.

Funding

• This research was funded by the Helmholtz Association through the project "Regional Climate Modelling" (HMZ-RCLM).
• Additional funding was provided by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) through the project "Climate Change and Regional Development" (KlimaWandel und regionale Entwicklung).

Citation

@article{Geyer2026Optimisation,
  author = {Geyer, Beate and Campanale, Angelo and Churiulin, Evgenii and Feldmann, Hendrik and Goergen, Klaus and Hagemann, Stefan and Ho-Hagemann, Ha Thi Minh and Karadan, M. M. and Keuler, Klaus and Khain, Pavel and Lawand, Divyaja and Ludwig, Patrick and Maurer, Vera and Petrov, Sergei and Poll, Stefan and Purr, Christopher and Russo, Emmanuele and Schubert‐Frisius, Martina and Schulz, Jan-Peter and Singh, Shweta and Steger, Christian and Truhetz, Heimo and Will, Andreas},
  title = {Optimisation of ICON-CLM for the EURO-CORDEX domain: developments, sensitivities, tuning},
  journal = {Geoscientific model development},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.5194/gmd-19-5439-2026},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-5439-2026}
}