Climate Models

CMIP6

For analysing future climate scenarios, understanding climate variability in a multi-model framework, and assessing climate change impacts, the CMIP6 multi-model ensemble is used. CMIP is a large international effort to advance climate model development and improve scientific understanding of the Earth system, coordinated by the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) through its Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM)
More than 30 research groups worldwide contribute to CMIP6. In total, 21 model intercomparison projects were endorsed for their relevance to the WCRP’s Grand Challenges and the core scientific questions of CMIP6. The model simulations produced within CMIP6 have also been evaluated and used in major international climate assessments and negotiations, including the IPCC Assessment Reports.

The data produced by CMIP6 forms the foundation for the impact models used in the ISIMIP (Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project), which underpin the results presented in Climate Impacts Online.

Read more about CMIP6: www.wcrp-climate.org

ISIMIP3b

For the Climate Impacts Online web portal, bias-adjusted ISIMIP3b climate input data from the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP) were used. This dataset is based on original global climate model (GCM) outputs from the CMIP6 archive. More information on this dataset can be found on the ISIMIP website
For bias correction and statistical downscaling, the ISIMIP3BASD method and W5E5 v2.0 observational dataset were applied (Lange, 2019a; Lange, 2020).

The data covers three time periods:

Future projections are based on CMIP6 experiments, specifically:
The ISIMIP3b dataset includes a wide range of climate variables: near-surface relative and specific humidity, near-surface wind speed, daily maximum, mean, and minimum temperature, longwave and shortwave downwelling radiation, snowfall, surface air pressure, and total precipitation.
If working with data downloaded from Climate Impacts Online, please cite according to ISIMIP3b's "cite as" information

The ISIMIP3b data includes the following models. Under each link you will also find more information about each specific model:

Model Link
GFDL-ESM4 GFDL,
ISIMIP input data GFDL-ESM4
IPSL-CM6A-LR IPSL,
ISIMIP input data IPSL-CM6A-LR
MPI-ESM1-2-HR Max-Planck-Institut für Meterologie,
ISIMIP input data MPI-ESM1-2-HR
MRI-ESM2-0 Max-Planck-Institut,
ISIMIP input data MRI-ESM2-0
UKESM1-0-LL UKESM,
ISIMIP input data UKESM1-0-LL
Read more about ISIMIP: www.isimip.org

Models in detail

GDFL-ESM4

The GDFL-ESM4 climate model, which is part of the CMIP6 project, was released in 2018. It consists of:
"aerosol: interactive (including aerosol indirect effect), atmos: GFDL-AM4.1 (Cubed-sphere (c96) - 1 degree nominal horizontal resolution; 360 x 180 longitude/latitude; 49 levels; top level 1 Pa), atmosChem: GFDL-ATMCHEM4.1 (full atmospheric chemistry), land: GFDL-LM4.1 (land model with a new vegetation dynamics model with explicit treatment of plant age and height structure and soil microbes, with daily fire, crops, pasture, and grazing tiles), landIce: GFDL-LM4.1, ocean: GFDL-OM4p5 (GFDL-MOM6, tripolar - nominal 0.5 deg; 720 x 576 longitude/latitude; 75 levels; top grid cell 0-2 m), ocnBgchem: GFDL-COBALTv2, seaIce: GFDL-SIM4p5 (GFDL-SIS2.0, tripolar - nominal 0.5 deg; 720 x 576 longitude/latitude; 5 layers; 5 thickness categories), with radiative transfer and C-grid dynamics for compatibility with MOM6. The model was run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA (NOAA-GFDL) in native nominal resolutions: aerosol: 100 km, atmos: 100 km, atmosChem: 100 km, land: 100 km, landIce: 100 km, ocean: 50 km, ocnBgchem: 50 km, seaIce: 50 km."
Source: WDC Climate - GDFL-ESM4


IPSL-CM6A-LR

The IPSL-CM6A-LR climate model was released in 2017 and is also part of the CMIP project. The model includes the components: "atmos: LMDZ (NPv6, N96; 144 x 143 longitude/latitude; 79 levels; top level 80000 m), land: ORCHIDEE (v2.0, Water/Carbon/Energy mode), ocean: NEMO-OPA (eORCA1.3, tripolar primarily 1deg; 362 x 332 longitude/latitude; 75 levels; top grid cell 0-2 m), ocnBgchem: NEMO-PISCES, seaIce: NEMO-LIM3. The model was run by the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, Paris 75252, France (IPSL) in native nominal resolutions: atmos: 250 km, land: 250 km, ocean: 100 km, ocnBgchem: 100 km, seaIce: 100 km."
Source: WDC Climate - GDFL-ESM4


MPI-ESM1-2-HR

The MPI-ESM consists of the coupled general circulation models for the atmosphere and the ocean, ECHAM6 (spectral T127; 384 x 192 longitude/latitude; 95 levels; top level 0.01 hPa) and MPIOM (tripolar TP04, approximately 0.4deg; 802 x 404 longitude/latitude; 40 levels; top grid cell 0-12 m), and the subsystem models for land and vegetation JSBACH3.20 and for the marine biogeochemistry HAMOCC6. It is run by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg 20146, Germany (MPI-M) in native nominal resolutions: "aerosol: 100 km, atmos: 100 km, land: 100 km, landIce: none, ocean: 50 km, ocnBgchem: 50 km, seaIce: 50 km."
Source: WDC Climate - GDFL-ESM4


MRI-ESM2-0

The model MRI-ESM2.0 was released in 2017 and run by the Meteorological Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0052, Japan (MRI). It includes the following components: "aerosol: MASINGAR mk2r4 (TL95; 192 x 96 longitude/latitude; 80 levels; top level 0.01 hPa), atmos: MRI-AGCM3.5 (TL159; 320 x 160 longitude/latitude; 80 levels; top level 0.01 hPa), atmosChem: MRI-CCM2.1 (T42; 128 x 64 longitude/latitude; 80 levels; top level 0.01 hPa), land: HAL 1.0, ocean: MRI.COM4.4 (tripolar primarily 0.5 deg latitude/1 deg longitude with meridional refinement down to 0.3 deg within 10 degrees north and south of the equator; 360 x 364 longitude/latitude; 61 levels; top grid cell 0-2 m), ocnBgchem: MRI.COM4.4, seaIce: MRI.COM4.4. The model was run in native nominal resolutions: aerosol: 250 km, atmos: 100 km, atmosChem: 250 km, land: 100 km, ocean: 100 km, ocnBgchem: 100 km, seaIce: 100 km."
Source: WDC Climate - GDFL-ESM4


UKESM1

UKESM1 consists of the NEMO ocean model and the CICE sea-ice, as well as the JULES land surface model, with TRIFFID dynamic vegetation. Furthermore, the model simulates atmospheric chemistry and aerosols using UKCA, marine biogeochemistry with MEDUSA and dynamic ice-sheets with the BISICLES model.
Source: UKESM - UKESM1


Sources:

Eyring, V., S. Bony, G. A. Meehl, C. A. Senior, B. Stevens, R. J. Stouffer, and K. E. Taylor, 2016: Overview of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6(CMIP6) experimental design and organization. Geoscientific Model Development, 9, 1937−1958, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-1937-2016.
Lange, S.: Trend-preserving bias adjustment and statistical downscaling with ISIMIP3BASD (v1.0), Geoscientific Model Development, 12, 3055–3070, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3055-2019, 2019a.
Lange, S.: ISIMIP3BASD v2.4.1, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3898426, 2020.
ISIMIP3b
WGCM CMIP6