CMIP5 - Experiment Design - Design Document



A detailed description of the experiment design is provided by: Taylor et al (2009), "A Summary of the CMIP5 Experiment Design" is dated 22 Jan 2011.


Addendum to this document: Experiment_design_addendum.pdf  (word format)


Earlier versions of experiment design document (with marked changes):

22 Jan. 2011:Taylor_CMIP5_22Jan11_marked.pdf,

18 Dec. 2009: Taylor_CMIP5_dec18_marked.pdf,

06 Dec. 2009: Taylor_CMIP5_dec6_marked.pdf,

Oct. 2009: Taylor_CMIP5_oct09_marked.pdf ,.

Dec. 2008: Taylor_CMIP5_dec31.pdf


A more condensed summary of the experiment design can be found in:
Taylor, K.E., R.J. Stouffer, G.A. Meehl: An Overview of CMIP5 and the experiment design.” Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 93, 485-498, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00094.1, 2012.

An overview of various aspects of CMIP5 is provided by:
WCRP Coupled Model Intercomparison Project – Phase 5: Special Issue of the CLIVAR Exchanges Newsletter, No. 56, Vol. 15, No. 2

The objectives and strategy for the CMIP5 decadal predictions simulations are summarized in:
Meehl, Gerald A., and Coauthors: Decadal Prediction. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 90, 1467–1485, doi:10.1175/2009BAMS2778.1, 2009.

An outline of the strategy for including ESM’s in CMIP is outlined in:
Meehl, G.A., and K.A. Hibbard, 2007: A strategy for climate change stabilization experiments with AOGCMs and ESMs. WCRP Informal Report No. 3/2007, ICPO Publication No. 112, IGBP Report No. 57, World Climate Research Programme: Geneva, 35 pp.

and
Hibbard, K. A., G. A. Meehl, P. Cox, and P. Friedlingstein (2007): A strategy for climate change stabilization experiments. EOS, 88, 217, doi:10.1029/2007EO200002



The CMIP5 (CMIP Phase 5) experiment design includes the following suites of experiments:


I    Decadal Hindcasts and Predictions simulations,
II  "long-term" simulations,
III  "atmosphere-only" (prescribed SST) simulations for especially computationally-demanding models.


The focus in CMIP5 is on experiments with AOGCMs (suites I and II). This is why in the experiment design document, the third suite of experiments involving atmosphere-only models has not been listed separately from the Decadal Hindcasts and Predictions experiments. We anticipate, however, that some NWP modeling centers and some computationally demanding model versions (e.g., with sophisticated atmospheric chemistry treatments) may only be able to perform experiments with prescribed SSTs and sea ice. Typical models used for climate studies, however, would be expected to do experiments in suites I and/or II in addition to (or rather than) only those in suite III.