The ITHACA's (medITerranean HydroclimAte variability over the Common erA) goal is to advance the understanding of paleoclimate over the Mediterranean basin to the point where it can inform policy and decision-making about the risks of climate change from a paleo perspective and place future projections within a broad historical context. This project will investigate the characteristics (frequency, intensity, extent, seasonality) and causes of hydroclimate extremes (droughts and pluvials) during the Common Era (CE, the last two thousand years) over the Mediterranean region by developing a state-of-the-art paleo data assimilation product, which will effectively combine high-resolution paleo proxy-data time series with the physical constraints of an atmosphere-ocean climate model simulation.

Finally, by using this new product the project will address the attribution of anthropogenic activities to current changes in hydroclimatic extremes, and it will provide guidance for process-based risk assessment tools.

https://www.ithacamsca.com/