Thirty in-person, and more than 40 online, participants met to review the current provision model and delivery of the CMIP7 DECK forcings suite, discuss the key challenges, hear from users and funders of the data, co-create a range of practical implementation options, develop the vision and generate concrete actions towards regular and sustained climate forcings dataset delivery. The four-day workshop was co-organised by the CMIP Climate Forcings Task Team, ECMWF Copernicus Climate Services, ESA Climate and Long Term Action Division and the CMIP International Project Office. Huge thanks to ECMWF who kindly hosted the workshop at their UK site in Reading, and to ESA for hosting the meeting dinner.
The now…the CMIP7 DECK Forcings suite
The first two days of the workshop focused on the progress towards delivery of the CMIP7 DECK forcings suite to support the AR7 Fast Track. Each dataset provider outlined the status of their dataset, highlighted any critical issues, key data dependencies, and discussed protocol development, understanding of uncertainties, and importantly the many exciting science questions remaining. A number of testing versions have been made available via ESGF through the CMIP6Plus activity and are ready for testing by any interested modelling centres. To launch the call for modelling centre feedback, the Forcings Task Team held an open community drop-in session (slides and recording) on Day 2 of the workshop to encourage users to test the available datasets and provide feedback via GitHub. Members of the scenarios community also provided update on the CMIP7 scenario development, plans for harmonisation and challenges to be addressed.
Working towards sustained mode delivery
On Day 3 the focus pivoted to looking beyond the AR7 Fast Track and CMIP to a sustained mode delivery for forcings dataset with regular updates. A users panel provided insight into the surprising breadth of users and potential users of forcings data. Additionally, funders panel highlighted the need to raise the visibility of the impact of the forcings data, and the funding and resource gaps that may limit providers from moving to a sustained mode delivery. An afternoon breakout session allowed for some further in-depth discussion on sustained mode challenges beyond funding including ensuring adequate recognition for providers, data provenance issues, potential for prototype/beta products, and documentation needs.
Next steps
Carlo Buontempo, C3S Director, brought the workshop to a close on Day 4 by summarising a set of outline actions across short, medium and longer timescales providing a transitional pathway to sustained delivery of climate forcing data to serve a wider user community. The Forcings Task Team, supported by the CMIP Panel and CMIP IPO, will now work to implement the outcomes, reach out further within the relevant communities and build on the momentum and enthusiasm demonstrated at this highly productive workshop. Watch this space!
Further information
All presentations and recordings of workshop sessions are publicly accessible on the workshop webpage. For more information on the CMIP Climate Forcings Task Team, see their webpage. Please sign-up for the Forcings mailing list here to be notified of new data, updates, or documentation.
Feedback on the forcing datasets can be provided via GitHub. We are particularly interested to hear from you if you have tested the datasets in models or compared against datasets in past CMIP phases or other sources.
