More is not always better: delta-downscaling climate model outputs from 30 to 5&thinsp;min resolution has minimal impact on coherence with Late Quaternary proxies

Timbrell, Lucy; Blinkhorn, James; Colucci, Margherita; Leonardi, Michela; Chevalier, Manuel; Pozzi, Andrea Vittorio; Grove, Matt; Scerri, Eleanor; Manica, Andrea

doi:10.5194/cp-21-1185-2025

Articles | Volume 21, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-1185-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Past vegetation dynamics and their role in past climate...

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-1185-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 7

Research article

|

10 Jul 2025

Research article |

| 10 Jul 2025

More is not always better: delta-downscaling climate model outputs from 30 to 5 min resolution has minimal impact on coherence with Late Quaternary proxies

Lucy Timbrell, James Blinkhorn, Margherita Colucci, Michela Leonardi, Manuel Chevalier, Andrea Vittorio Pozzi, Matt Grove, Eleanor Scerri, and Andrea Manica

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Nov 2024	14	2	43	59
Dec 2024	11	9	51	71
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Feb 2025	23	5	3	31
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Jul 2025	356	44	21	421
Aug 2025	352	13	7	372
Sep 2025	239	24	7	270
Oct 2025	110	31	2	143
Nov 2025	99	43	4	146
Dec 2025	140	59	11	210
Jan 2026	130	26	16	172
Feb 2026	87	41	8	136
Mar 2026	97	38	9	144
Apr 2026	154	47	16	217
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Oct 2026	126	68	54	248
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Cumulative views and downloads (calculated since 31 Jul 2024)

Month	HTML	PDF	XML	Total
Jul 2024	85	10	0	95
Aug 2024	172	53	10	235
Sep 2024	58	11	42	111
Oct 2024	35	5	1	41
Nov 2024	14	2	43	59
Dec 2024	11	9	51	71
Jan 2025	16	7	42	65
Feb 2025	23	5	3	31
Mar 2025	22	10	0	32
Apr 2025	21	3	1	25
May 2025	27	5	2	34
Jun 2025	31	3	3	37
Jul 2025	356	44	21	421
Aug 2025	352	13	7	372
Sep 2025	239	24	7	270
Oct 2025	110	31	2	143
Nov 2025	99	43	4	146
Dec 2025	140	59	11	210
Jan 2026	130	26	16	172
Feb 2026	87	41	8	136
Mar 2026	97	38	9	144
Apr 2026	154	47	16	217
May 2026	95	70	6	171
Jun 2026	24	36	1	61
Jul 2026	59	43	3	105
Aug 2026	34	16	7	57
Sep 2026	209	52	118	379
Oct 2026	126	68	54	248
Nov 2026	0

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Short summary

Scientists study past climate change using proxies (e.g. pollen) and models. Proxies offer detailed snapshots but are limited in number, while models provide broader coverage but at low resolution. Models are typically downscaled to 30 arcmin, but it is unclear if this is sufficient. We found that increasing models to 5 arcmin does not improve their coherence with climate reconstructed from pollen data. Optimal model resolution depends on research need, balancing detail with error.