New Climate Change Center of Saudi Arabia: Advancing Understanding and Prediction for the Arabian Peninsula Climate

Abstract The desert climate of the Arabian Peninsula (AP), marked by sparse rainfall, extreme temperatures, and frequent dust events, significantly impacts its 80‐million population, environment, and economy. Rising temperatures and dust incursions exacerbate these harsh conditions, yet the AP's climate is underrepresented in global climate research. Understanding its variability is crucial for improving predictions on subseasonal‐to‐seasonal timescales and for developing reliable climate change projections. Existing climate models fail to capture the region's unique environment, topography, and land‐use changes, leading to poor representation of key processes like local convection, aridity, and moisture transport. To address these gaps, Saudi Arabia established the Climate Change Center (CCC) in 2022, part of the Saudi Vision 2030 initiative. The CCC aims to study climate variability and project future changes using advanced Earth system models developed in collaboration with international partners. This study presents the CCC's roadmap, focusing on its relevance for global climate research and policymaking, including the Saudi and Middle East Green Initiatives. We also discuss regional uncertainties in the IPCC's climate projections for the AP and highlight the development of high‐resolution regional models that account for local atmospheric, land, and oceanic processes. The CCC is developing subseasonal‐to‐seasonal forecasting systems and drought monitoring tools, alongside user‐friendly dashboards to offer stakeholders customized climate data. These tools, set for launch in 2025, will aid informed decision‐making in addressing extreme weather events and climate‐related challenges in Saudi Arabia.

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Publication Details

Journal
Earth s Future
Published
2025-12-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2025ef006296
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Climate variability and models
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.11
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article

New Climate Change Center of Saudi Arabia: Advancing Understanding and Prediction for the Arabian Peninsula Climate

Charls Antony, Md Saquib Saharwardi, Rui Sun, Koteswararao Vankayalapati et al.
1 citations
Earth s Future
Climate variability and models
1.11
article

New Climate Change Center of Saudi Arabia: Advancing Understanding and Prediction for the Arabian Peninsula Climate

Charls Antony, Md Saquib Saharwardi, Rui Sun, Koteswararao Vankayalapati, Daquan Guo, Christopher L. Castro, Saber Feki, David Yates, Arjan O. Zamreeq, William Dougherty, Matteo Zampieri, Bilel Hadri, Yasser Abualnaja, Matthew R. Mazloff, Srinivas Desamsetti, Karumuri Ashok, Bruce D. Cornuelle, Hari Prasad Dasari, Aneesh C. Subramanian, Harikishan Gandham, Thang M. Luong, Raju Attada, Mohamad Abed El Rahman Hammoud, P. Gopinathan, Peng Zhan, Hsin-I Chang, Waqar Ul Hassan, Wenqiang Cui, Yesubabu Viswanadhapalli, Edriss S. Titi, Christoforus Bayu Risanto, Rama Krishna Karumuri, Raju Pathak, Davide Bavera, Ibrahim Hoteit, E. Rubio, George Krokos, Majda Abdo Al‐Azemi, Sateesh Masabathini, Md. Nazrul Islam, Andrew W. Robertson, Ravi Kumar Kunchala, Muhammad Azhar Ehsan, Ayman S. Ghulam, Junchuan Sun, Shehzad Afzal, Mazen Ibrahim Asiri, Saud Z. Al-Boqami, Ramakrishna Pammi, Caspar Aman
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Abstract The desert climate of the Arabian Peninsula (AP), marked by sparse rainfall, extreme temperatures, and frequent dust events, significantly impacts its 80‐million population, environment, and economy. Rising temperatures and dust incursions exacerbate these harsh conditions, yet the AP's climate is underrepresented in global climate research. Understanding its variability is crucial for improving predictions on subseasonal‐to‐seasonal timescales and for developing reliable climate change projections. Existing climate models fail to capture the region's unique environment, topography, and land‐use changes, leading to poor representation of key processes like local convection, aridity, and moisture transport. To address these gaps, Saudi Arabia established the Climate Change Center (CCC) in 2022, part of the Saudi Vision 2030 initiative. The CCC aims to study climate variability and project future changes using advanced Earth system models developed in collaboration with international partners. This study presents the CCC's roadmap, focusing on its relevance for global climate research and policymaking, including the Saudi and Middle East Green Initiatives. We also discuss regional uncertainties in the IPCC's climate projections for the AP and highlight the development of high‐resolution regional models that account for local atmospheric, land, and oceanic processes. The CCC is developing subseasonal‐to‐seasonal forecasting systems and drought monitoring tools, alongside user‐friendly dashboards to offer stakeholders customized climate data. These tools, set for launch in 2025, will aid informed decision‐making in addressing extreme weather events and climate‐related challenges in Saudi Arabia.

Earth s FutureVol. 13(12)
NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (US), National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (IN), University of Arizona (US), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US), National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (IN), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali (IN), University of Colorado Boulder (US), University of Cambridge (GB), Southern University of Science and Technology (CN), University of California San Diego (US), Arcadia (US), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IN), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (SA), International Society of Nephrology (BE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 17%
Climate variability and models
1.11
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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