Climatic Research Unit

Data archives

This page provides information about, and access to, ENSEMBLES outputs from both global (GCM) and regional (RCM) climate models for anthropogenic climate-change (ACC) and seasonal-to-decadal (s2d) timescales. The ACC simulations use observed historical forcing and different future emissions scenarios to 2100. The s2d simulations include seasonal, annual and decadal ensemble hindcasts.

Information about, and access to, observed data sets are also provided. These datasets include station data, gridded surface observations and reanalysis data.

ENSEMBLES Tecnical Report No.4 describes the status of the archives in May 2008

A policy governing the use of ENSEMBLES project data by other organisations has been agreed.

 

ENSEMBLES data archives web page

The main ENSEMBLES data archives page provides access to:

• Project-wide archives
• Individual partner archives
• Other archives
• Web tools for processing data

This RT6 web site provides links to some data download and processing tools and scripts for users.

Global Climate Model data sets

ENSEMBLES anthropogenic climate-change runs: simulate anthropogenic and natural forced climate response for the historical period from 1860 to present and projected response to 2100 using different GCMs and SRES scenarios, together with a new stabilisation scenario (E1).

Simulation set	Status	Details	Data archives
ACC Stream 1	Complete	Runs were performed with seven GCMs (BCM2, CNRM-CM3, ECHAM5/MPI-OM, EGMAM, HadCM3, HadGEM1 and IPSL-CM4) using five different forcings: multicentennial control forcing, historical forcing to 2000, and the B1, A1B and A2 SRES scenarios to 2100.	ACC data sets and reports
ACC Stream 2	Complete	These simulations use Earth Systems Models and a new stabilisation scenario (E1 - focussing on 450 ppm CO2 equivalent) developed within the ENSEMBLES project.

ENSEMBLES seasonal to decadal hindcasts: hindcast production period for stream 1 simulations is 1991 to 2001; stream 2 covers the period 1960-2005.

Simulation set	Status	Details	Data archives
s2d Stream 1	Complete	The ENSEMBLES s2d multimodel-system is based on the experiences of DEMETER and the operational multi-model seasonal forecast system (EUROSIP), and is installed at ECMWF. It has capabilities to run, in addition, perturbed parameter and stochastic physics simulations. It is built from five coupled climate models: IFS/HOPE, ARPEGE4/5/OPA, GloSea, DePreSys and ECHAM5/MPI-OM1. Hindcast simulations are for 1991-2001: seasonal runs (7 months): two start dates per year (May, Nov) annual runs (14 months): one start date per year (Nov) multi-annual/decadal runs (10 years): start in Nov 1965 and 1994, with DePreSys carrying out two per year.	s2d data sets and reports
s2d Stream 2	Complete	Hindcasts use the stream 1 multi-model system, but are run for 1960-2005: seasonal runs (7 months): four start dates per year (Feb, May, Aug, Nov) annual runs (14 months): at least one start date per year (Nov) multi-annual/decadal runs (10 years): at least one multi-annual run every 5 years, with DePreSys carrying out at least one per year

Regional Climate Model data sets

Regional scenarios for climate change impacts assessment require finer spatial scales than those provided by global climate models. ENSEMBLES provides improved regional models, first at spatial scales of 50 km and then at 25 km. ENSEMBLES RT3 also provides a multi-model ensemble based system (including a weighting scheme) for regional climate prediction on seasonal to decadal and longer time scales.

ACC Simulation set	Status	Details	Data archives
PRUDENCE runs	Complete	The PRUDENCE project provides a set of RCM simulations for Europe for 1961-1990 and 2071-2100 and the SRES A2 and B2 scenarios.	RCM data sets and reports
ENSEMBLES Reanalysis runs	Complete	The RT3 ERA40@50 and ERA40@25 RCM European simulations are forced by ERA40 reanalysis data and have grid resolutions of 50 and 25 km respectively.
ENSEMBLES scenarios runs	Complete	The RT2B RCM simulations use the same model versions, common domain and grids as the ERA40@25 simulations. They are run for 1950-2050 or 1950-2100 using boundary conditions taken from the ENSEMBLES stream 1 ACC GCM simulations focusing on the SRES A1B scenario.
Non-European ENSEMBLES RCM simulations	Largely complete	These simulations are for the West African monsoon region. See D3.5.1 for for the simulation plan
s2d Simulation set	Status	Details
ENSEMBLES runs	Complete	INM has used the RCA model to downscale the ENSEMBLES stream 1 s2d simulations
DEMETER runs	Complete	The DEMETER seasonal forecasts have also been dynamically downscaled.

 

Observed data sets

The following categories of observed data sets are of interest for model evaluation and scenario construction.

Station data	Details	Data archives
ENSEMBLES case-study data sets	Metadata and data links are provided. The case-study areas include the Alps, the Mediterranean, the Balkans/Danube Basin, the Rhine basin, the Baltic region and Scandinavia.	Observed data sets
European Climate Assessment (ECA) data sets	Freely available daily series of temperature and precipitation for over 4000 series of observations at more than 1500 European meteorological stations.
STARDEX seasonal indices of extremes	Freely available seasonal indices of extremes: six for precipitation and four for temperature. They are available for 491 European-wide stations for the period 1958-2000.
Gridded surface data	Details
ENSEMBLES gridded surface dataset	ENSEMBLES has developed a daily high-resolution (25 km) gridded observational data set for Europe. The variables are min/max temperature and precipitation.
JRC European-wide gridded dataset	ENSEMBLES-restricted set of daily near-surface meteorological parameters, based on more than 6000 inventoried stations. The dataset starts in 1975 and has a 50km x 50km spatial resolution.
ETH - Alps gridded dataset	Mesoscale gridded fields of daily precipitation for the European Alps for the period 1966-1999 developed by Frei and Schar (1998). Each grid point uses on average 10-15 station observations.
CRU - global gridded datasets	High-resolution climate gridded monthly data sets freely available from the Climatic Research Unit.
Reanalysis data	Details
ERA-40	ERA-40 covers the period from mid-1957 to mid-2002. These ECMWF datasets are based on quantities analysed or computed within the ERA-40 data assimilation scheme or from forecasts based on these analyses. ERA-interim is now available from 1989 to present.

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