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FAQs
Below there are answers to six FAQs. If you cannot see the answer to your question below, please check our community Q&A Forum. If you still cannot see the answer to your question, we encourage you to submit to the forum using the form below. The CMIP IPO will ensure that your question is answered by the relevant person across our Governance, Task Teams or Community Members.
This FAQ board is new, so it currently doesn’t have that many questions. We encourage anyone to submit their question so that we can create a useful resource for the climate science community.
What is a coupled climate model?
A climate model is a set of computer code which can simulate our climate. They come in different forms: some will only cover a specific region whilst others will simulate the whole planet, some only calculate certain parts of the climate system, whilst others will simulate atmosphere, oceans, ice and land.
Coupled climate models are some of the most complex climate models, where different components of the climate system can interact and feed back on each other, such as if the ocean is coupled to the atmosphere, the exchange of heat and water between the two is calculated. Adding these couplings into models increases the complexity and often calculation time of the model.
Carbon Brief has written a longer introduction to climate models and how they are used. If you’d like to learn more, then read their article here.
How do I access CMIP data and is it free?
CMIP data access is all freely available through the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF). For more details on how to access this, see our CMIP Data Access webpages.
How do I subscribe to the CMIP mailing lists?
Please fill in this form to subscribe to our mailing lists. To see descriptions of our mailing lists, see here.
What CMIP events are coming up this year?
To see upcoming and previously held events for the CMIP community, see our Events page here.
How do I register a MIP?
To register a new or existing MIP, please fill out this form. More details on MIP registration can be found here.
Where can I find a list of variables a model might output with both the variable acronym and full name?
A full list of variable acronyms which were output in CMIP6 can be found here, along with their full name and units. Please note, this list is taken from the MIP Tables, version 6.9.33.
Community Q&A Forum
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Submit a new question or feedback
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