21.09.2020

The project RCEMIP (short for: Radiative Convective Equilibrium Model Intercomparison Project) is aimed at understanding the response of atmospheric numerical models to a model setup (RCE) representing a strong idealisation of tropical climate. This idealisation helps to focus and understand salient features determining tropical (and global) climate. Despite the simple setup of RCE model experiments, past simulations show a wide spread of model behavior. RCEMIP aims to solve this problem by for the first time prescribing a standardised experiment framework allowing for comparability of RCE simulation results.

Since contributions to RCEMIP come from research groups scattered around the globe, including numerous simulations performed by researchers at the Max Planck Insitute for Meteorology (MPI-M), it was essential for the project success to establish a centralised data hub. The RCEMIP coordinators approached datamanagement team of DKRZ for support in this regard and were presented with a feasible solution: the DKRZ cloud infrastructure, which allows for making large amounts of data globally available with negligible administrative overhead.

Together with the RCEMIP coordinators, DKRZ datamanagers established data up- and download workflows so that the data can be easily reused. The data producers were asked to follow simple data structures and use commonly accepted data standards in order to maximize reusability and comparability of all the contributed simulation data.

With success! The RCEMIP overview paper based on the RCEMIP dataset available at DKRZ was published in July 2020 and the RCEMIP data will remain stored in the DKRZ cloud for the near future and will later be transfered to the World Data Centre for Climate (WDCC) for long-term preservation. They so form the basis of further investigations by the scientific community and remain reusable in the long-run.

de-RCEMIP.png

Source: Twitter @AtmosSciBot. Word clouds of #openaccess papers in atmospheric science routinely and on request | bot by @meteodenny and @m_zamyatina | Please support https://bit.ly/2QirgvU

Weblinks and further information:
•    RCEMIP project webseite: http://myweb.fsu.edu/awing/rcemip.html
•    RCEMIP data set: https://cera-www.dkrz.de/WDCC/ui/cerasearch/info?site=RCEMIP_DS
•    RCEMIP overview paper: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2020MS002138
•    RCE model setup: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences/12-811-tropical-meteorology-spring-2011/lecture-notes/