The Earth system model EC-Earth3 for contributions to CMIP6 is documented here, with its flexible coupling framework, major model configurations, a methodology for ensuring the simulations are comparable across different high-performance computing (HPC) systems, and with the physical performance of base configurations over the historical period. The variety of possible configurations and sub-models reflects the broad interests in the EC-Earth community. EC-Earth3 key performance metrics demonstrate physical behavior and biases well within the frame known from recent CMIP models. With improved physical and dynamic features, new Earth system model (ESM) components, community tools, and largely improved physical performance compared to the CMIP5 version, EC-Earth3 represents a clear step forward for the only European community ESM. We demonstrate here that EC-Earth3 is suited for a range of tasks in CMIP6 and beyond.The development of EC-Earth3 was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under project IS-ENES3, the third phase of the distributed e-infrastructure of the European Network for Earth System Modelling (ENES) (grant agreement no. 824084, PRIMAVERA grant no. 641727, and CRESCENDO grant no. 641816).
Etienne Tourigny and Raffaele Bernardello have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement nos. 748750 (SPFireSD project) and 708063 (NeTNPPAO project). Ivana Cvijanovic was supported by Generalitat de Catalunya (Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement) through the Beatriu de Pinós program. Yohan Ruprich-Robert was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program in the framework of Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant INADEC (grant agreement 800154). Paul A. Miller, Lars Nieradzik, David Wårlind, Roland Schrödner, and Benjamin Smith acknowledge financial support from the strategic research area “Modeling the Regional and Global Earth System” (MERGE) and the Lund University Centre for Studies of Carbon Cycle and Climate Interactions (LUCCI). Paul A. Miller, David Wårlind, and Benjamin Smith acknowledge financial support from the Swedish national strategic e-science research program eSSENCE. Paul A. Miller further acknowledges financial support from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) under project no. 621-2013-5487. Shuting Yang acknowledges financial support from a Synergy Grant from the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC (grant agreement 610055) as part of the ice2ice project and the NordForsk-funded Nordic Centre of Excellence project (award 76654) ARCPATH. Marianne Sloth Madsen acknowledges financial support from the Danish National Center for Climate Research (NCKF). Andrea Alessandri and Peter Anthoni acknowledge funding from the Helmholtz Association in its ATMO program. Thomas Arsouze, Arthur Ramos, and Valentina Sicardi received funding from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades as part of the DeCUSO project (CGL2017-84493-R).Peer Reviewed"Article signat per 61 autors/es: Ralf Döscher, Mario Acosta, Andrea Alessandri, Peter Anthoni, Thomas Arsouze, Tommi Bergman, Raffaele Bernardello, Souhail Boussetta, Louis-Philippe Caron, Glenn Carver, Miguel Castrillo, Franco Catalano, Ivana Cvijanovic, Paolo Davini, Evelien Dekker, Francisco J. Doblas-Reyes, David Docquier, Pablo Echevarria, Uwe Fladrich, Ramon Fuentes-Franco, Matthias Gröger, Jost v. Hardenberg, Jenny Hieronymus, M. Pasha Karami, Jukka-Pekka Keskinen, Torben Koenigk, Risto Makkonen, François Massonnet, Martin Ménégoz, Paul A. Miller, Eduardo Moreno-Chamarro, Lars Nieradzik, Twan van Noije, Paul Nolan, Declan O'Donnell, Pirkka Ollinaho11, Gijs van den Oord, Pablo Ortega, Oriol Tintó Prims, Arthur Ramos, Thomas Reerink, Clement Rousset, Yohan Ruprich-Robert, Philippe Le Sager, Torben Schmith, Roland Schrödner, Federico Serva, Valentina Sicardi, Marianne Sloth Madsen, Benjamin Smith, Tian Tian, Etienne Tourigny, Petteri Uotila, Martin Vancoppenolle, Shiyu Wang, David Wårlind, Ulrika Willén, Klaus Wyser, Shuting Yang, Xavier Yepes-Arbós, and Qiong Zhang"Postprint (author's final draft
