Model Intercomparison Project
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| mip_abstract | Robust projections and predictions of climate variability and change, particularly at regional scales, rely on the driving processes being represented with fidelity in model simulations. The role of enhanced horizontal resolution in improved process representation in all components of the climate system continues to be of great interest. In particular, recent simulations suggest both the possibility of significant changes in large-scale aspects of circulation and response to climate change, as well as improvements in small-scale processes and extremes. The first HighResMIP (HighResMIP v1.0 for CMIP6) was successful in producing a baseline multi-model assessment of global simulations with model grid spacings of around 50km in the atmosphere and 0.25° in the ocean, comparing to models with standard resolutions typically used as part of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6) DECK experiments. In addition to a large number of peer-reviewed publications using the published HighResMIP datasets, the results were widely cited in the IPCC AR6 WG1 report, and were the basis for a variety of derived datasets including tracked cyclones (both tropical and extratropical), storm surge and others used for impact studies. However, there were a number of aspects of HighResMIPv1.0 that were less than ideal, through both practical and design choices at that time. These included: long (and relatively expensive) simulation designs, which even so only reached to 2050; specification of little to no tuning between standard and higher resolution model configurations; simplified aerosol specification; small ensemble size; short spin-up for coupled simulations; one future scenario. In addition, with the increasing use of global km-scale models (currently run for relatively short timescales), there is a danger of a gap opening between such models and the CMIP community which still (generally) relies on ~100km model simulations. Therefore we propose an updated HighResMIP v2.0 to improve and extend the previous work, to address new science questions as well as some of these shortcomings above, and to further advance our understanding of the role of horizontal resolution on climate simulation. With further increases in high-performance computing (HPC) resources and new models able to take full advantage of such resources, enhanced investigation of the drivers and consequences of variability and change in both large- synoptic-scale weather and climate is made possible. The set of HighResMIP v2.0 experiments is divided into several tiers consisting of atmosphere-only and coupled runs spanning the period 1950–2100, together with some additional shorter experiments to enable process understanding and links to other communities. This paper describes the experimental set-up of HighResMIPv2, the analysis plan, and the connection with other CMIP projects. It also aims to link to other international efforts such as the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) lighthouse activities. |
| mip_long_name | High Resolution Model Intercomparison Project |
| mip_website | https://www.highresmip.org |
| name | HighResMIP |
| uid | 527f5c76-8c97-11ef-944e-41a8eb05f654 |