CMIP3 - Overview
In response to a proposed activity of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM), PCMDI volunteered to collect model output contributed by leading modeling centers around the world. Climate model output from simulations of the past, present and future climate was collected by PCMDI mostly during the years 2005 and 2006, and this archived data constitutes phase 3 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3). In part, the WGCM organized this activity to enable those outside the major modeling centers to perform research of relevance to climate scientists preparing the Fourth Asssessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC was established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environmental Program to assess scientific information on climate change. The IPCC publishes reports that summarize the state of the science.
This unprecedented collection of recent model output is officially known as the "WCRP CMIP3 multi-model dataset." It is meant to serve IPCC's Working Group 1, which focuses on the physical climate system -- atmosphere, land surface, ocean and sea ice -- and the choice of variables archived at the PCMDI reflects this focus. A more comprehensive set of output for a given model may be available from the modeling center that produced it.
As of July 2009, over 36 terabytes of data were in the archive and over 536 terabytes of data had been downloaded among the more than 2500 registered users. Over 250 journal articles, based at least in part on the dataset, have been published or have been accepted for peer-reviewed publication. Latest statistics can be found at: 1) usage, 2) download rate, 3) CMIP3 subprojects, and 4) publications