Obs4MIPs
A pilot activity to make observational products more accessible for climate model intercomparisons
Overview
A wide variety of observationally-based datasets are used for climate model evaluation. Obs4MIPs refers to a limited collection of well-established and documented datasets that have been organized according to the CMIP5 model output requirements and made available on the ESG. Each Obs4MIPs dataset corresponds to a field that is output in one or more of the CMIP5 experiments. This technical alignment of observational products with climate model output can greatly facilitate model data comparisons. Guidelines have also been developed for Obs4MIPs product documentation that is of particular relevance for model evaluation. This effort has been initiated with support from NASA and DOE with the intent of enabling additional data providers to contribute products (origins of obs4mips).
- To summarize, products available via Obs4MIPs are:
- Directly comparable to a model output field defined as part of CMIP5
- Open to contributions from all data producers that meet the Obs4MIPs requirements (see below)
- Well documented, with traceability to track product version changes
- Served through ESGF
Products
- NOAA products (in preparation)
Other agencies have expressed interest in preparing observational products for Obs4MIPs. The organization of Obs4MIPs data on this wiki is expected to evolve as the diversity of observational datasets diversifies.
Requirements for contributing datasets to Obs4MIPS
Related activites
- An effort similar to Obs4MIPs is underway to make atmosphere reanalysis available (coming soon)
Comments or questions should be sent to obs4mips@lists.llnl.gov