Model Intercomparison Project
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| mip_abstract | VolMIP is a protocol-driven international project aiming at coordinating the activities of different Research Institutes involved in numerical climate modelling focused on a multi-model assessment of climate models' performance under strong volcanic forcing conditions. VolMIP is motivated by the large uncertainties regarding the climatic responses to strong volcanic eruptions identified in CMIP5 simulations with respect to, e.g., the radiative forcing during periods of strong volcanic activity, the Northern Hemisphere's winter response, the precipitation response and the response of the oceanic thermohaline circulation, and by the apparent mismatch between simulated and reconstructed post-eruption surface cooling for volcanic eruptions during the last millennium. Inter-model differences are likely related to differences in the prescribed volcanic aerosol forcing data used by different models, or variations in implementation, which create differences in the radiative forcing produced by the volcanic aerosol forcing. The use by some modeling groups of coupled aerosol modules for the CMIP6 historical experiments, with volcanic forcing thereby explicitly simulated based on estimates of SO2 emissions will increase inter-model spread in volcanic forcing. Therefore, VolMIP fills the need for a coordinated model intercomparison with volcanic forcing - in terms of aerosols optical properties - constrained across participating models. Specifically, VolMIP will assess to what extent responses of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system to the same applied strong volcanic forcing are robustly simulated across state-of-the-art coupled climate models and identify the causes that limit robust simulated behavior, especially differences in their treatment of physical processes. The CMIP6 VolMIP protocol entails three main sets of experiments: the first focusing on the short-term (seasonal to interannual) atmospheric response, the second focusing on the long-term (interannual to decadal) response of the coupled ocean–atmosphere system, and the third focusing on the climatic response to close successions of volcanic eruptions (so-called volcanic clusters). Careful sampling of initial climate conditions and the opportunity to consider volcanic eruptions of different strengths allowed for a better understanding of the relative role of internal and externally forced climate variability during periods of strong volcanic activity, hence improving both the evaluation of climate models and our ability to accurately simulate past and future climates. Currently, the multi-model ensemble for the mandatory volc-pinatubo-full experiment includes output from six participating Earth system models (CanESM5, GISS-E2.1-G, IPSL-CM6A-LR, MIROC-E2SL, MPI-ESM1.2-LR and UKESM1). The CMIP7 VolMIP protocol is currently under definition. |
| mip_long_name | Model Intercomparison Project on the climate response to Volcanic forcing |
| mip_website | www.volmip.org |
| name | VolMIP |
| uid | 527f5c7a-8c97-11ef-944e-41a8eb05f654 |