CMIP6

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) coordinates the WCRP Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). CMIP is coordinated by two subcommittees: The WCRP Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM) and the  WGCM Infrastructure Panel (WIP). CMIP6 is phase 6 of CMIP.  The objective of CMIP iis to better understand past, present and future climate changes arising from natural, unforced variability or in response to changes in radiative forcing in a multi-model context. This understanding includes assessments of model performance during the historical period and quantifications of the causes of the spread in future projections. Idealized experiments are also used to increase understanding of the model responses. In addition to these long time scale responses, experiments are performed to investigate the predictability of the climate system on various time and space scales as well as making predictions from observed climate states. An important goal of CMIP is to make the multi-model output publically available in a standardized format.

An overview paper by Eyring et al., 2016 on the CMIP6 experimental design presents the new structure of CMIP and provides a detailed description of the CMIP Diagnostic, Evaluation and Characterization of Klima (DECK) experiments and the CMIP6 historical simulations. In addition it briefly introduces the 23 CMIP6-Endorsed MIPs. This overview presentation of CMIP6 by the CMIP panel - July 2017 summarizes the general CMIP approach which will be followed from CMIP6: Each model that participates in one of the endorsed MIPs has to carry out the Core MIP (also abbreviated by CMIP), i.e. the DECK and historical experiments, as an entry card.