February 20, 2023
The CMIP7 Workshop took place in CSIRO Aspendale for two days at the end of February and was co-hosted by the Australian Earth System Simulator (ACCESS-NRI), CSIRO, the NESP Climate Systems Hub and the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI).
We had 97 registrations (40 in person and 57 online) from:
- Universities (Melbourne, Monash, UNSW, USyd, Wollongong, UTAS, UQ, University of Southern Queensland, ANU and Murdoch University)
The CMIP7 Workshop in person participants. Photo credit: Tony Rafter
- Government representatives: the Department of Education, Department of Environment and Science (QLD), Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (WA,) Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) and Climate Change Authority.
- National scientific organisations: CSIRO, The Bureau of Meteorology, NESP, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX), Australian Antarctic Division
- International scientific institutions: Met Office (UK), NIWA (NZ), Centre for Climate Research (Singapore) and the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), with some requesting a recording given time zone differences.
The workshop focused on briefing the climate, weather and Earth system modelling research community, stakeholders and government representatives on the current state of Australia’s contribution to CMIP7 —the next version of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project – and to gather input on priorities for participation in CMIP7. CMIP’s main aim is to better understand past, present and future climate changes arising from natural variability or in response to human activities in a multi-model context.
As a globally-coordinated shared resource, CMIP is widely used for research and in producing information for decision-makers, including through national and state climate projections. The 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sixth assessment report featured climate models from CMIP6, while the upcoming IPCC seventh assessment report (AR7) will feature new state-of-the-art CMIP7 models. For CMIP6, Australia submitted two (ACCESS-CM2 and ACCESS ESM1.5) primary model configurations, developed by CSIRO.
AIMS OF THE WORKSHOP
- Discuss amongst the community the status of current plans for CMIP7
- Compare Australia’s current approach with other nations, and with CMIP5/6
- Discuss the influence, importance and impact of having an Australian climate model in CMIP7 and the current climate & Earth system model landscape for Australia
- Frame a community-wide strategy for Australia’s CMIP7 contributions, including resourcing requirements
- Discuss what questions we hope to address with CMIP7 as a community
- Consider future needs for the use of CMIP in conjunction with other tools – emulators, machine learning, k-scale modelling, downscaling simulations
A full report on the outcomes of the meeting will be available for all participants soon.