Periodic Reporting for period 3 - IS-ENES3 (Infrastructure for the European Network for Earth System modelling - Phase 3)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-01-01 al 2023-03-31
IS-ENES3 implements the third phase of the distributed e-infrastructure of the European Network for Earth System Modelling (ENES). Its key goal is to stimulate collaboration, disseminate software and data, and further integrate the European climate modelling community. IS-ENES3 supports climate research, climate impact science, and the climate services industry, bringing down barriers of access, and expanding the community who can exploit the data and knowledge produced by state-of-the-art climate models and reference simulations. In doing so, IS-ENES3 aims to find innovative ways of working with the Copernicus programme, with other parts of the European data infrastructure, and with the high-performance computing and data analytics industries. IS-ENES3 partners combine expertise in climate modelling, computational science, data management, climate impacts and climate services, with proven ability to enhance the international influence of European science. Central to its role is the support to the international coordinated climate simulations of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), which serves as a reference for IPCC Assessment reports.
IS-ENES3 is organised around three main objectives with the overarching goal of providing the infrastructure to better understand and project climate variability and change through technical excellence:
1. Pursue the integration of the Earth’s climate system modelling community and prepare the sustainability of its infrastructure;
2. Foster the common development of models and tools, and the efficient use of high-performance computing; and
3. Support the exploitation of model data by the Earth system science community, the climate change impact community and the climate service community.
IS-ENES3 is structured around access services, networking and joint research activities. The delivery of the European part of the international Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) is a central point of entry to services providing access to new model data. Access to software, models and tools are also key activities in supporting the community. Joint research supports a new community sea ice model, promotes efficient use of high-performance computing, improves the European common model evaluation framework, and develops and enhances services around data. Extensive networking aims at growing the user base, increasing the cohesion of the climate modelling community, promoting innovation and preparing for a long-term sustainable infrastructure in support of climate modelling.
IS-ENES3 is organised around three main objectives with the overarching goal of providing the infrastructure to better understand and project climate variability and change through technical excellence:
1. Pursue the integration of the Earth’s climate system modelling community and prepare the sustainability of its infrastructure;
2. Foster the common development of models and tools, and the efficient use of high-performance computing; and
3. Support the exploitation of model data by the Earth system science community, the climate change impact community and the climate service community.
IS-ENES3 is structured around access services, networking and joint research activities. The delivery of the European part of the international Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) is a central point of entry to services providing access to new model data. Access to software, models and tools are also key activities in supporting the community. Joint research supports a new community sea ice model, promotes efficient use of high-performance computing, improves the European common model evaluation framework, and develops and enhances services around data. Extensive networking aims at growing the user base, increasing the cohesion of the climate modelling community, promoting innovation and preparing for a long-term sustainable infrastructure in support of climate modelling.
IS-ENES3 supports the sixth phase of the WCRP Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, CMIP6, through the European support to ESGF for accessing data, as well as support to international standards for metadata and data conventions. Main community effort has been devoted to the publication of data and on accessing data and easing model analyses, contributing to the preparation of the IPCC 6th Assessment Report published in 2021.
At the end of IS-ENES3, a bit more than 50% of the 25 Petabytes (PB) of CMIP6 data published on ESGF were hosted on European data nodes – including data replicated from elsewhere to ease usage for the European user community. From January 2019 to March 2023, 23 PB of data have been downloaded from European data nodes at an average rate of circa 450 TB per month by an average number of users of over 8000 users per month worldwide. New services have also been established to make CMIP6 data compliant with FAIR data principles, including a citation service providing data citation and licence information and the issuing of persistent identifiers for all of CMIP6 files.
IS-ENES3 is also strongly engaged at the international level in the development of ESGF but also in the development and use of international standards such as the metadata common information model and the climate forecast convention used for climate model data. A roadmap for the future architecture of ESGF has been developed and the transition to a new architecture has started with the wider ESGF community.
A series of training sessions and schools has allowed engagement with a wider community, especially to ease access to the climate impact community as well as those developing climate services. Special attention was given to engage with Eastern Europe climate scientists with, for example, a dedicated analysis of their specific requirements for climate indices and dedicated training on site. A new version of the portal targeting the climate impact community (the climate4impact portal) allows easier access to data and analyses, in particular for computing climate indices.
The evaluation of climate models is important to assess confidence in model results. IS-ENES3 supports a common European tool for model evaluation, in particular its coupling with ESGF data to provide metrics on CMIP6 model data used in the IPCC AR6 report published in 2021, contributing to the production of 60 figures in 3 different chapters of this report.
Climate model codes also require regular developments, to better represent processes, to include new mechanisms of the complex climate system and also to improve their efficiency in using high-performance computers. IS-ENES3 has enhanced its service on models and tools, adding new tools such as an efficient parallel data server and a workflow scheduler. IS-ENES3 also supports community activities in climate modelling, such as the newly developed European platform for sea ice modelling, gathering expertise from previous three different models, and coupled to the European platform for ocean modelling.
As it is in its third phase, IS-ENES3 has also prepared for sustainability. The software and services supporting the modelling and data-using community are long term activities, running well beyond the project horizon. Through the scoping, design and implementation phases, activities have paved the way to a sustained coordination entity.
At the end of IS-ENES3, a bit more than 50% of the 25 Petabytes (PB) of CMIP6 data published on ESGF were hosted on European data nodes – including data replicated from elsewhere to ease usage for the European user community. From January 2019 to March 2023, 23 PB of data have been downloaded from European data nodes at an average rate of circa 450 TB per month by an average number of users of over 8000 users per month worldwide. New services have also been established to make CMIP6 data compliant with FAIR data principles, including a citation service providing data citation and licence information and the issuing of persistent identifiers for all of CMIP6 files.
IS-ENES3 is also strongly engaged at the international level in the development of ESGF but also in the development and use of international standards such as the metadata common information model and the climate forecast convention used for climate model data. A roadmap for the future architecture of ESGF has been developed and the transition to a new architecture has started with the wider ESGF community.
A series of training sessions and schools has allowed engagement with a wider community, especially to ease access to the climate impact community as well as those developing climate services. Special attention was given to engage with Eastern Europe climate scientists with, for example, a dedicated analysis of their specific requirements for climate indices and dedicated training on site. A new version of the portal targeting the climate impact community (the climate4impact portal) allows easier access to data and analyses, in particular for computing climate indices.
The evaluation of climate models is important to assess confidence in model results. IS-ENES3 supports a common European tool for model evaluation, in particular its coupling with ESGF data to provide metrics on CMIP6 model data used in the IPCC AR6 report published in 2021, contributing to the production of 60 figures in 3 different chapters of this report.
Climate model codes also require regular developments, to better represent processes, to include new mechanisms of the complex climate system and also to improve their efficiency in using high-performance computers. IS-ENES3 has enhanced its service on models and tools, adding new tools such as an efficient parallel data server and a workflow scheduler. IS-ENES3 also supports community activities in climate modelling, such as the newly developed European platform for sea ice modelling, gathering expertise from previous three different models, and coupled to the European platform for ocean modelling.
As it is in its third phase, IS-ENES3 has also prepared for sustainability. The software and services supporting the modelling and data-using community are long term activities, running well beyond the project horizon. Through the scoping, design and implementation phases, activities have paved the way to a sustained coordination entity.
IS-ENES3 has an impact on European climate modelling by facilitating model and software development and use through the sharing of expertise, as well supporting the access to climate model data and analyses. IS-ENES3 also plays a key role in supporting the ESGF international database by contributing to its development together with the USA. The impact of IS-ENES3 goes beyond Europe and beyond climate modelling, as climate model data are extensively used internationally by a range of users including climate science and climate impact research. Climate model data are also more and more used to develop climate services, including the Copernicus Climate Change service which relies on the expertise of IS-ENES3. By its key support to the WCRP international program, IS-ENES3 has also substantially contributed to the 6th Assessment Report of IPCC.
Services provided by IS-ENES3 are critical for a wide community and need to continue after the end of the project. To fulfil this need, IS-ENES3 has paved the way for a sustained research infrastructure, which will continue to coordinate the delivery of services, supported by an updated 10-year infrastructure strategy for the European Earth System Modelling community.
Services provided by IS-ENES3 are critical for a wide community and need to continue after the end of the project. To fulfil this need, IS-ENES3 has paved the way for a sustained research infrastructure, which will continue to coordinate the delivery of services, supported by an updated 10-year infrastructure strategy for the European Earth System Modelling community.