CMIP6 debriefing workshop – May 2021: a stocktaking and foresight exercise that highlighted the major and long-term investment of the CNRM-CERFACS group in the latest climate model intercomparison international exercise
The participation of the CNRM-CERFACS group in the international coupled global climate model intercomparison exercise CMIP6 was debriefed on 10 and 11 May. Since the mid-1990s, the various phases of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP), supported by the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), have enabled climate science to make significant progress, feeding into the IPCC reports, supporting regional climate modelling activities and downstream climate services.
On the balance sheet, the participation of CNRM-CERFACS in the extremely demanding CMIP6 exercise has resulted in a large-scale, high-quality contribution in terms of climate simulations, thanks in particular to the strong commitment of researchers and engineers, the quality of support services and national and international collaborations. The activities mainly took place over the period 2013-2020. Initially, the production environment (“workflow”) was set up and the coupled climate models were assembled by capitalising on the development of components (atmosphere, ocean and continental surfaces) carried out over the long term. The actual production of simulations was spread over 2018-2020. During the debriefing, perspectives (scientific objectives, model development, organisation) were drawn up with a view to a new participation of CNRM and CERFACS in CMIP