The CMIP6 Data Request (DREQ, version 01.00.31)

The data request of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) defines all the quantities from CMIP6 simulations that should be archived. This includes both quantities of general interest needed from most of the CMIP6-endorsed model intercomparison projects (MIPs) and quantities that are more specialized and only of interest to a single endorsed MIP. The complexity of the data request has increased from the early days of model intercomparisons, as has the data volume. In contrast with CMIP5, CMIP6 requires distinct sets of highly tailored variables to be saved from each of the more than 200 experiments. This places new demands on the data request information base and leads to a new requirement for development of software that facilitates automated interrogation of the request and retrieval of its technical specifications. The building blocks and structure of the CMIP6 Data Request (DREQ), which have been constructed to meet these challenges, are described in this paper

Evaluation of Native Earth System Model Output with ESMValTool v2.6.0

Earth system models (ESMs) are state-of-the-art climate models that allow numerical simulations of the past, present-day, and future climate. To extend our understanding of the Earth system and improve climate change projections, the complexity of ESMs heavily increased over the last decades. As a consequence, the amount and volume of data provided by ESMs has increased considerably. Innovative tools for a comprehensive model evaluation and analysis are required to assess the performance of these increasingly complex ESMs against observations or reanalyses. One of these tools is the Earth System Model Evaluation Tool (ESMValTool), a community diagnostic and performance metrics tool for the evaluation of ESMs. Input data for ESMValTool need to be formatted according to the CMOR (Climate Model Output Rewriter) standard, a process that is usually referred to as CMORization. While this is a quasi-standard for large model intercomparison projects like the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP), this complicates the application of ESMValTool to non-CMOR-compliant climate model output. In this paper, we describe an extension of ESMValTool introduced in v2.6.0 that allows seamless reading and processing native climate model output, i.e., raw output directly produced by the climate model. This is achieved by an extension of ESMValTool’s preprocessing pipeline that performs a CMOR-like reformatting of the native model output during runtime. Thus, the rich collection of diagnostics provided by ESMValTool is now fully available for these models. For models that use unstructured grids, a further preprocessing step required to apply many common diagnostics is regridding to a regular latitude-longitude grid. Extensions to ESMValTool’s regridding functions described here allow for more flexible interpolation schemes that can be used on unstructured grids. Currently, ESMValTool supports nearest-neighbor, bilinear, and first-order conservative regridding from unstructured grids to regular grids. Example applications of this new native model support are the evaluation of new model setups against predecessor versions, assessing of the performance of different simulations against observations, CMORization of native model data for contributions to model intercomparison projects, and monitoring of running climate model simulations. For the latter, new general-purpose diagnostics have been added to ESMValTool that are able to plot a wide range of variable types. Currently, five climate models are supported: CESM2 (experimental; will be fully available in ESMValTool v2.7.0), EC-Earth3, EMAC, ICON, and IPSL-CM6. As the framework for the CMOR-like reformatting of native model output described here is implemented in a general way, support for other climate models can be easily added

Improvement of thunderstorm hazard information for pilots through a ground based weather information and management system, The CB WIMS approach in FLYSAFE

The development and outcome from first evaluations of the thunderstorm weather information management system ‘CB WIMS’ in the EU project FLYSAFE is described. Preliminary results from a flight test campaign carried out in summer 2008 involving two research aircraft are presented. They lead to the conclusion that information about thunderstorm hazards delivered from CB WIMS through a ground based weather processor and satellite communication to an aircraft could help to improve the pilot’s awareness of the weather situation and assist in flight planning particularly in complex thunderstorm situations where the on-board radar cannot provide the pilot with the full situation awareness due to scanning geometry and radar beam attenuation

Cb Nowcasting in FLYSAFE : Improving flight safety regarding thunderstorm hazards

The FLYSAFE Project aims at defining and testing new tools and systems contributing to the safety of flights for all aircraft, and addresses weather hazards. A “Weather Information Management System” dedicated to thunderstorm hazard has been designed and developed for three geographical scales. It is ground-based, uses as main inputs radar and MSG satellite data and provides nowcasts up to one hour ahead in an object-oriented mode and in a dedicated GML format. Its evaluation involved research aircrafts, both in real time and in an offline setting. Offline evaluation results show the added value of the products, with respect to on-board data, especially regarding the cases of on-board radar return extinction by heavy rain, and regarding extended spatial coverage, most useful when the aircraft turns sharp. Additional potential value of the products show in the CB objects attributes like trend and hail occurrenc

Nowcasting Thunderstorm Hazards for Flight Operations: The CB WIMS Approach in FLYSAFE

This paper describes the development of the thunderstorm weather information management system “CB WIMS” within the European Integrated Project FLYSAFE and presents results from applications in case studies over the terminal manoeuvring area of airport Paris Charles de Gaulle

FLYSAFE – Severe weather simulations to evaluate new warnings of meteorological hazards

FLYSAFE is an Integrated Project of the 6th framework of the European Commission aiming at improving flight safety through the development of a Next Generation Integrated Surveillance System (NGISS). The NGISS will provide information to the pilot on a number of external hazards, with particular emphasis on weather, air traffic and terrain. One of its advantage will be the capability of displaying data about all three hazards on a single screen, facilitating rapid pilot assessment of the situation. In order to improve the accuracy of warnings provided to aircraft in flight, specialised tools for generating nowcasts of atmospheric hazards are under development: the Weather Information Management Systems (WIMSs). Four types of WIMSs feeding the NG-ISS were defined, each addressing one hazard: clear air turbulence, thunderstorms (CB), icing (ICE), and wake vortices. These products are generated by on-ground systems from observations and model forecasts. To evaluate the impact of these new kind of information during realistic in-flight conditions, as well as to test the NG-ISS abilities, severe weather high resolution simulations were performed. Meteorological synthetic outputs feed the WIMS, and a flight simulator including the NG-ISS. We focus here on synthetic ICE and CB WIMS diagnosed from two heavy precipitating events simulations in the vicinity of airports. The first one is a deep convection situation over the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, on the 23rd of June, 2005. The second occurred on the 20th of September, 1999 during the Mesoscale Alpine Program (MAP-IOP2B) near the Innsbruck airport. These two simulated events will be discussed, as well as weather hazards provided by ICE and CB WIMSs