The Canadian regional climate model

High resolution climate simulations (horizontal resolutions of 25km or smaller) are a desired product for policy makers, the public, and renewable energy applications. Since running climate models at high resolution is not feasible, dynamical and statistical downscaling methods are applied. The latest version of the Canadian regional climate model (CanRCM5) is specifically designed to dynamically downscale future climate projections of its parent Canadian Earth System Model (CanESM5). The close relationship between these two Canadian models allows for improved RCM driving relative to independent RCM modelling centres, as all required prognostic variables are available on CanRCM5's lateral boundaries from its parent global model. Coupling different scale size models is challenging as regional climate models can easily develop their own climate. To keep the features of CanRCM5 consistent with CanESM5, the large-scale dynamics of CanRCM5 are typically nudged towards its parent model. We present a framework that identifies appreciable differences between the regional and global model and apply it to near-surface wind and precipitation fields showing that particularly the influence of better resolved topography yields substantial differences in the climate projections of CanRCM and CanESM. Finally, we discuss latest developments on research on bias correcting CanESM and CanRCM which allows for more accurate representations of the climate state. (Joint work with John Scinocca and Slava Kharin)