Question
Asked 26 October 2015

How I can extract future precipitation and climate data from CMIP5 simulation?

Kindly guide me how i can download CMIP5 simulation for emission scenario RCP 8.5? How i can extract the future climate data for a specific catchment?  

Popular answers (1)

Christian B. Rodehacke
Danish Meteorological Institute
The basic step could be summarized:
  1. Get access to the data via one node of the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF); see for example http://www.dkrz.de/daten-en/IPCC-DDC_AR5. You may have to create an account before you actually can download the data. If a colleague at your institute has done it before, ask him to save time.
  2. Prepare a data selection mask (details below), so that only the values of the catchment are taken into account.
  3. Process the data. Done
If you get the impression that the global data of the CMIP5 simulations are to coarse for your question of interest, you may consider to explore the data from the WCRP CORDEX archive, were regional models of higher spatial resolution are driven by the typical CMIP5 scenarios. See for example http://cordex.org
Steps 2-3 in more detail
Any how the general steps are similar regardless of the data set. I would first download a data set for a year, for instance, and the information where each grid point is located in terms of latitude and longitude. I would construct a mask, where each model grid point entirely in your catchment would get the value one (1) and all model grid points outside of the catchment would get the value zero (0). The grid points that are partly covered by the catchment could be treated in two ways. The simple one for first test is as follows: If the fractional coverage is above 50% use one else zero. In a later version you may use the more advanced way by exploiting the actual fractional coverage ranging from 0 (completely outside) to 1 (entirely inside) your catchment.
Afterwards you may apply the mask to your test data set and inspect if the results are plausible. Afterwards you may download the entire data set covering your period of interest and repeat the steps for the entire period of interest. In this respect you either use your favorite tool to perform the actions or you may consider trying the CDOs (climate data operators: https://code.zmaw.de/projects/cdo/wiki/Cdo). They are very handy if you operate with netCDF output from common climate models. For common Linux distributions they can be easily installed, for example in Ubuntu the command would be: apt-get install cdo (at least as long as you have administrative rights; if not ask your system administrator).
Once you have done the job for one model and want to compare the results to another model, you have to redo all the steps above, since the model grid is probably different among the models. Here scripting the entire process (csh, tcsh, bash, ksh, …) could save you a lot of work at the end. However the construction of the mask and the tests should be done for each model, before a script is started, else the results might be misleading and a lot of working hours are wasted without proper testing.
Good luck
4 Recommendations

All Answers (3)

Christian B. Rodehacke
Danish Meteorological Institute
The basic step could be summarized:
  1. Get access to the data via one node of the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF); see for example http://www.dkrz.de/daten-en/IPCC-DDC_AR5. You may have to create an account before you actually can download the data. If a colleague at your institute has done it before, ask him to save time.
  2. Prepare a data selection mask (details below), so that only the values of the catchment are taken into account.
  3. Process the data. Done
If you get the impression that the global data of the CMIP5 simulations are to coarse for your question of interest, you may consider to explore the data from the WCRP CORDEX archive, were regional models of higher spatial resolution are driven by the typical CMIP5 scenarios. See for example http://cordex.org
Steps 2-3 in more detail
Any how the general steps are similar regardless of the data set. I would first download a data set for a year, for instance, and the information where each grid point is located in terms of latitude and longitude. I would construct a mask, where each model grid point entirely in your catchment would get the value one (1) and all model grid points outside of the catchment would get the value zero (0). The grid points that are partly covered by the catchment could be treated in two ways. The simple one for first test is as follows: If the fractional coverage is above 50% use one else zero. In a later version you may use the more advanced way by exploiting the actual fractional coverage ranging from 0 (completely outside) to 1 (entirely inside) your catchment.
Afterwards you may apply the mask to your test data set and inspect if the results are plausible. Afterwards you may download the entire data set covering your period of interest and repeat the steps for the entire period of interest. In this respect you either use your favorite tool to perform the actions or you may consider trying the CDOs (climate data operators: https://code.zmaw.de/projects/cdo/wiki/Cdo). They are very handy if you operate with netCDF output from common climate models. For common Linux distributions they can be easily installed, for example in Ubuntu the command would be: apt-get install cdo (at least as long as you have administrative rights; if not ask your system administrator).
Once you have done the job for one model and want to compare the results to another model, you have to redo all the steps above, since the model grid is probably different among the models. Here scripting the entire process (csh, tcsh, bash, ksh, …) could save you a lot of work at the end. However the construction of the mask and the tests should be done for each model, before a script is started, else the results might be misleading and a lot of working hours are wasted without proper testing.
Good luck
4 Recommendations
Neil Andrew White
Queensland Government
For Australia-centric data I've been using http://nrm-erddap.nci.org.au. Most of which is global, but as it's a set of data derived from NOAA it may be possible to find more specific regional data suitable for you needs

Similar questions and discussions

Has the process of global warming in recent years accelerated faster than it was predicted just a few years ago?
Discussion
5 replies
  • Dariusz ProkopowiczDariusz Prokopowicz
What are the research results that support the thesis that as a result of human civilization, as a result of still increasing greenhouse gas emissions, the process of global warming in recent years has accelerated faster than previously predicted?
A growing number of research centers analyzing the planet's climate in the long term, analyzing the progressive process of climate change, developing long-term forecast models of climate change, changes in ocean water temps are publishing the results of their research, which show that as a result of human civilizational activity, as a result of still increasing greenhouse gas emissions, the process of global warming in recent years has accelerated faster than previously predicted just a few years ago. These institutions include, among others, the international research team established at the UN and publishing IPCC reports. In addition to this, the European Space Agency (ESA) Copernicus also recently published the results of its ongoing research on the climate of planet Earth, which showed that in the 1st half of 2023, the average temp. of planet Earth's atmosphere was 16.8 degrees C. This is the highest temp. in the history of measurements. This is further evidence supporting the thesis that the global climate crisis has begun, and that the green economic transformation measures carried out in recent years, including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, were definitely insufficient. In addition, in many countries, these actions have fallen far short of the pledges made at the UN Climate COP. Besides, the results of the aforementioned studies also support the thesis that the process of global warming in recent years has accelerated faster than previously predicted. This is a particularly important issue in the context of the living conditions of the next generations of people on the planet. Living conditions will rapidly deteriorate for many people on the planet in the not too distant future. Increasing summer heat, droughts, forest fires, weather anomalies, violent storms, drinking water shortages, deterioration of air quality, melting glaciers, rising water levels in the seas and oceans, shrinking areas of forests and other types of natural ecosystems, deterioration of the natural environment, progressive loss of biodiversity of natural ecosystems, extinction of pollinating insects and many other forms of life, etc. these are the key effects of the progressive global warming process, which will determine the deterioration of the quality of life on the planet for many people. In 2023 and 2024, the El Ninio effect is also an additional factor generating an increase in atmospheric temperature. However, according to the results of studies on the planet's climate, analyses of long-term climate change El Ninio is only an additional factor to the main factor is still the rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emissions generated by human civilization still based largely on the dirty combustion economy. However, there are many more research results also conducted by other institutions and research centers confirming the above theses. Please also provide other results of research conducted on this issue.
Key aspects of the negative effects of the progressive process of global warming and the related necessary acceleration of the processes of green transformation of the economy in order to decarbonize the economy, slow down the process of global warming, protect the climate, biosphere and biodiversity of the natural ecosystems of the planet, I described in the article:
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY DEVELOPMENT AS A KEY ELEMENT OF THE PRO-ECOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE ECONOMY TOWARDS GREEN ECONOMY AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY
In the following article, I included the results of the research conducted on the connection of the issue of sustainable development, the genesis and meaning of the Sustainable Development Goals, the essence of sustainable development in the context of social, normative, economic, environmental, climate aspects, as well as human rights, etc. The research also addressed the issue of key determinants of human existential security as an element of the concept of sustainable development.
HUMAN SECURITY AS AN ELEMENT OF THE CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
In view of the above, I address the following question to the esteemed community of scientists and researchers:
What are the results of research supporting the thesis that, as a result of human civilization, as a result of still increasing greenhouse gas emissions, the process of global warming in recent years has accelerated faster than previously predicted?
Has the process of global warming in recent years accelerated faster than it was predicted just a few years ago?
Please answer,
I invite everyone to join the discussion,
Thank you very much,
The above text is entirely my own work written by me on the basis of my research.
In writing this text I did not use other sources or automatic text generation systems.
Copyright by Dariusz Prokopowicz
On my profile of the Research Gate portal, you can find several publications on the issues of environmental policy, green transformation of the economy, green economics, sustainable economic development, etc. I invite you to scientific cooperation in these issues.
Best wishes,
Dariusz Prokopowicz

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