Task team period of service: 4th April 2023 – 13th January 2026
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Co-leads: Atef Ben Nasser, IPSL and Robert Pincus, Columbia
This task team will seek to smooth the path between the conception of experiments and the
use of the resulting data.
Challenge
The demand for and interest in CMIP data is growing rapidly with users coming from an increasingly diverse range of backgrounds beyond the climate research community including climate services, impact modelling, regional and local policy/decision makers and indigenous communities from across the globe. The CMIP6 Community Survey highlighted a number of opportunities for increasing equitable access to, and the utility of CMIP data.
Aim & Objectives
This task team will build on the CMIP6 Community Survey feedback and conduct further community and stakeholder engagement to determine the data provisioning and access needs for CMIP7 and related activities. We will then prioritise key areas of action and work with users, CMIP-related infrastructure teams, and other stakeholders (e.g., IPCC) across the globe to deliver user co-created solutions. These will guide the implementation in the CMIP7 cycle, within the limitations of available or projected human and financial resources.
The aims of this TT are to:
- Streamline and make the processes for supplying CMIP-compatible data more accessible.
- Simplify the user experience for data provisioning, access, and use.
- Facilitate community tool development.
- Support wider access to compute and analysis platforms.
- Reduce technical and resource-limitation barriers, particularly for those in the global south.
Early objectives will be:
- Identify key barriers to data provisioning and access across a wide range of roles, especially data providers and data users with varying levels of access to resources.
- Explore ways to lighten and/or generalise CMIP processes for design, specification, and coordination among and between projects.
- Survey and synthesise activities and plans from existing activities including the evolving ESGF, the Pangeo community, and others.
- Identify opportunities for reuse and generalisation of data provisioning and access tools including encapsulation/containerization.
- Explore a wide range of models for co-location of computational and data resources including the addition of computing to ESGF nodes, use of commercial and non-commercial clouds, and possibilities for leveraging intergovernmental or commercial interest in CMIP and related data.
Publications
Data Access Task Team whitepaper
This document distills information gathered by the CMIP Data Access Task Team for use by the CMIP Panel, the WCRP ESMO Infrastructure Panel, and other interested readers. The team was tasked with identifying barriers to the provisioning, distribution, and use of CMIP data. In particular the task team chose not to propose solutions given that the prioritisation of problems and the technical and/or organisational expertise to evaluate possible responses were both outside the team’s expertise. The task team does note that opportunities exist to refine both technical, organisational, and financial aspect of the system.
The paper describes the state of play during CMIP6 and then the barriers identified by the task team for data production, dissemination, and access respectively. Progress made for CMIP7 is described and a coda reviews alternative paths taken by another, much smaller, WCRP project.
Former members
| Atef Ben Nasser | Co-lead; 2023-2026 | IPSL | France |
| Robert Pincus | Co-lead; 2023-2026 | Columbia University | USA |
| Lincoln Alves | Member; 2023-2026 | INPE | Brazil |
| Muhammad Amjad | Member; 2023-2026 | GCISC | Pakistan |
| Sebastien Denvil | Member; 2023-2026 | ECMWF | UK |
| Sandro Fiore | Member; 2023-2026 | University of Trento | Italy |
| Bian He | Member; 2023-2026 | Institute of Atmospheric Physics | China |
| Adrian Hines | Member; 2023-2026 | STFC | UK |
| Nana A. B. Klutse | Member; 2023-2026 | AIMS Rwanda; University of Ghana | Rwanda, Ghana |
| Yinpeng Li | Member; 2023-2026 | IGCI | New Zealand |
| Zane Martin | Member; 2023-2026 | PWC | USA |
| Paola Nassisi | Member; 2023-2026 | CMCC | Italy |
| Siyabonga Nozwane | Member; 2023-2026 | South African Weather Service | South Africa |
| Aparna Radhakrishnan | Member; 2023-2026 | NOAA | USA |
| Addisu Semie | Member; 2023-2026 | Addis Ababa University | Ethiopia |
| Aiko Voigt | Member; 2023-2026 | University of Vienna | Austria |
Former members
| Ag Stephens | Member; 2023 | STFC | UK |
Stakeholders
| Christopher Goddard | ECMWF, UK | Provisioning/Platform provider group | |
| Jill Zhang | LLNL, USA | Provisioning/Platform provider group | |
| Joe Hamman | Earthmover.io, USA | Provisioning/Platform provider group | |
| Julius Busecke | Columbia University, USA | Provisioning/Platform provider group | |
| Lee Liming | ANL, USA | Provisioning/Platform provider group | |
| Chunxue Yang | CNR, Italy | Downstream users group | |
| Jeremy Fyke | ECCC, Canada | Downstream users group | |
| Magali Troin | Hydroclimat, France | Downstream users group | |
| Obbe Tuinenburg | Utrecht University, Netherlands | Downstream users group | |
| Stefan Liess | University of Minnesota, USA | Downstream users group | |
| Yi Chi Wang | AS-RCEC, Taiwan | Downstream users group |
Activities
Open call for members closed in January 2023 – call text available here.
