ESMValTool (v1.0) – a community diagnostic and performance metrics tool for routine evaluation of Earth system models in CMIP
A community diagnostics and performance metrics tool for the evaluation of Earth system models (ESMs) has been developed that allows for routine comparison of single or multiple models, either against predecessor versions or against observations. The priority of the effort so far has been to target...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2016-05-01
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| Series: | Geoscientific Model Development |
| Online Access: | http://www.geosci-model-dev.net/9/1747/2016/gmd-9-1747-2016.pdf |
| Summary: | A community diagnostics and performance metrics tool for the evaluation of
Earth system models (ESMs) has been developed that allows for routine
comparison of single or multiple models, either against predecessor versions
or against observations. The priority of the effort so far has been to target
specific scientific themes focusing on selected essential climate variables
(ECVs), a range of known systematic biases common to ESMs, such as coupled
tropical climate variability, monsoons, Southern Ocean processes, continental
dry biases, and soil hydrology–climate interactions, as well as atmospheric
CO<sub>2</sub> budgets, tropospheric and stratospheric ozone, and tropospheric
aerosols. The tool is being developed in such a way that additional analyses
can easily be added. A set of standard namelists for each scientific topic
reproduces specific sets of diagnostics or performance metrics that have
demonstrated their importance in ESM evaluation in the peer-reviewed
literature. The Earth System Model Evaluation Tool (ESMValTool) is a
community effort open to both users and developers encouraging open exchange
of diagnostic source code and evaluation results from the Coupled Model
Intercomparison Project (CMIP) ensemble. This will facilitate and improve ESM
evaluation beyond the state-of-the-art and aims at supporting such activities
within CMIP and at individual modelling centres. Ultimately, we envisage
running the ESMValTool alongside the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) as
part of a more routine evaluation of CMIP model simulations while utilizing
observations available in standard formats (obs4MIPs) or provided by the
user. |
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| ISSN: | 1991-959X 1991-9603 |