...
Dynamical downscaling with limited-area models is principally very similar to the global climate models as they are numerical models of the climate system. The key difference is that they are applied at higher horizontal resolution for a limited area taking lateral boundary conditions from the global model as input.
In addition to lateral boundary conditions for the atmosphere from the global model, regional climate models mostly need sea-surface temperatures and sea-ice conditions. Exceptions are if they are applied in continental areas or if the regional models also include modules for treating the ocean and sea ice. Such regional earth system models have been set up for the Mediterranean Sea and for the Baltic Sea and the North Sea albeit the actual number of existing simulations is still low.
The EURO-CORDEX projections provided by C3S RCMs have not been run in coupled mode, implying that sea-surface conditions are taken directly from the underlying global model. This also applies for most other CORDEX domains. For the Med-CORDEX domain, however, there exists also simulations in which the Mediterranean Sea has been explicitly simulated in a regional ocean model coupled to the atmosphere.
Depending on what the data should be used for the relevance of sea surface temperature and sea-ice conditions should be carefully considered.
...