Article Type:
Research Article

Documenting Climate Models and Their Simulations

Eric Guilyardi NCAS, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom, and IPSL/LOCEAN, Paris, France

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V. Balaji Princeton, New Jersey

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Bryan Lawrence NCAS, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom, and STFC, Didcot, United Kingdom

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Sarah Callaghan STFC/BADC, Didcot, United Kingdom

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Cecelia Deluca NOAA/ESRL/NESII, Boulder, Colorado

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Sébastien Denvil IPSL, Paris, France

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Michael Lautenschlager DKRZ, Hamburg, Germany

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Mark Morgan IPSL, Paris, France

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Sylvia Murphy NOAA/ESRL/NESII, Boulder, Colorado

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Karl E. Taylor PCMDI, Livermore, California

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Online Publication:
01 May 2013
Print Publication:
01 May 2013
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00035.1
Page(s):
623–627
Restricted access

The results of climate models are of increasing and widespread importance. No longer is climate model output of sole interest to climate scientists and researchers in the climate change impacts and adaptation fields. Now nonspecialists such as government officials, policy makers, and the general public all have an increasing need to access climate model output and understand its implications. For this host of users, accurate and complete metadata (i.e., information about how and why the data were produced) is required to document the climate modeling results. Here we describe a pilot community initiative to collect and make available documentation of climate models and their simulations. In an initial application, a metadata repository is being established to provide information of this kind for a major internationally coordinated modeling activity known as CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, Phase 5). It is expected that for a wide range of stakeholders, this and similar community-managed metadata repositories will spur development of analysis tools that facilitate discovery and exploitation of Earth system simulations.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Sarah Callaghan, British Atmospheric Data Centre, RAL Space, R25-Room 1.121, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell, Oxford, Didcot OX11 0QX, United Kingdom, E-mail: sarah.callaghan@stfc.ac.uk

The results of climate models are of increasing and widespread importance. No longer is climate model output of sole interest to climate scientists and researchers in the climate change impacts and adaptation fields. Now nonspecialists such as government officials, policy makers, and the general public all have an increasing need to access climate model output and understand its implications. For this host of users, accurate and complete metadata (i.e., information about how and why the data were produced) is required to document the climate modeling results. Here we describe a pilot community initiative to collect and make available documentation of climate models and their simulations. In an initial application, a metadata repository is being established to provide information of this kind for a major internationally coordinated modeling activity known as CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, Phase 5). It is expected that for a wide range of stakeholders, this and similar community-managed metadata repositories will spur development of analysis tools that facilitate discovery and exploitation of Earth system simulations.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Sarah Callaghan, British Atmospheric Data Centre, RAL Space, R25-Room 1.121, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell, Oxford, Didcot OX11 0QX, United Kingdom, E-mail: sarah.callaghan@stfc.ac.uk
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Cover Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

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