Infrastructure for global climate models
Even though a wealth of regional tools and models are already available, global models would enable scientists to fully understand the impact of climate change. To create such a global tool, researchers around the world have to share models, computing facilities and data. The EU-funded 'Infrastructure for the European Network for Earth System modelling' (IS-ENES) project aimed to provide software, tools and services to climate researchers, as well as end users of climate modelling results. The project builds on the success of the ENES initiative, which started in 2001. IS-ENES started by developing an infrastructure strategy for the next 10 years of ENES operation. The outcomes of IS-ENES can be divided into services, portals and high-performance computing (HPC). Two web portals were created during the project. The first allows researchers to create and test virtual models using provided datasets. The second, called climate4impact, was designed to provide modelling outcomes to stakeholders to help them with decision making regarding climate change. Services developed and offered by IS-ENES include several websites that provide information and support for different climate modelling tools and resources. These websites have shown increasing activity over the last three years. Lastly, IS-ENES improved access to HPC for climate modelling. It also hosted several workshops to teach researchers how to use HPC resources effectively. This project has introduced a wide range of software and knowledge to the climate modelling community. All of these tools will assist researchers across the continent to build and execute more useful global climate models.
