An international project office that opened last year at ESA’s facility in the UK is advancing its preparations for the new phase of a global climate modelling initiative.
The World Climate Research Programme opened the project office in 2022 to support the expansion and development of a key modelling initiative called the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP).
The project office – hosted by ESA’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications – has now completed one year of operations, in which it has been laying the foundations for the next cycle of CMIP.
This new phase – named CMIP7 – is set to build on the achievements of the previous cycles in terms of the number groups participating and model complexity, with the aims of reducing model uncertainties and improving understanding of the physical processes that drive climate change.
In preparation for CMIP7, director of the project office Eleanor O’Rourke and her team have been engaging with a diverse community, consisting of climate modellers, policymakers and application developers, to identify the priorities for this new generation.
This will enable to the project team to define and develop key features – such as experimental protocols and computational infrastructure – needed for CMIP7.