Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison

Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison
Name	Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison
Abbreviation	PCMDI
Formation	1995
Type	Scientific research coordination
Headquarters	United States
Parent organization	Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison is an international coordination program that organizes systematic evaluation, intercomparison, and development of numerical climate models used in climate research, including contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments. It facilitates standardized experiments, archival data services, and diagnostic toolkits for modeling groups at national laboratories, universities, and agencies such as National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and UK Met Office. The program’s work underpins major multi-model syntheses, informs United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change deliberations, and supports national research strategies of entities such as Department of Energy (United States), Natural Environment Research Council, and Agence nationale de la recherche.

History

PCMDI traces origins to collaborative efforts in the 1980s and 1990s that involved institutions like National Center for Atmospheric Research, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, and Hadley Centre. Early milestones included harmonizing experiments connected to the First Assessment Report and later coordination for the Third Assessment Report and Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Influential meetings took place alongside conferences hosted by American Geophysical Union, European Geosciences Union, International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and initiatives by World Climate Research Programme. Notable participants have included researchers affiliated with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Columbia University, University of Oxford, ETH Zurich, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and CSIRO.

Structure and Governance

PCMDI operates within a laboratory and interagency framework engaging organizations such as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and international bodies including European Commission research frameworks and Joint Research Centre. Governance involves advisory panels and steering committees composed of scientists from National Science Foundation, Japan Meteorological Agency, Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, and representatives from academic departments at London School of Economics, University of Tokyo, Tsinghua University, and University of Toronto. Funding and oversight intersect with programs at U.S. Department of Energy, European Research Council, Wellcome Trust, and foundations such as Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for related modeling capacity projects.

Objectives and Activities

Key objectives include standardizing multi-model experiments, improving model fidelity, diagnosing systematic errors, and archiving model output for community access. Activities encompass organizing intercomparison protocols used by groups at NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Met Office Hadley Centre, Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace, National Institute for Environmental Studies (Japan), and university centers. PCMDI convenes workshops tied to major conferences like AGU Fall Meeting, EGU General Assembly, American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, and collaborates on white papers for IPCC Working Group I, World Meteorological Organization, and policy bodies within European Parliament and national ministries.

Major Projects and Intercomparison Experiments

PCMDI coordinates and supports experiments that are central to initiatives such as the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) cycles that underpin IPCC Assessment Reports, engaging modeling centers including GFDL, HadGEM, MPI-ESM, CanESM, CESM, and EC-Earth. Other major activities have included aerosol intercomparison projects involving NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and radiative forcing diagnostics used by Royal Society reviews. Experiments often interface with paleoclimate reconstructions from PAGES, scenario development by IPCC, and ongoing climate services at Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Data Standards and Diagnostic Tools

The program champions data standards such as the Climate and Forecast (CF) metadata conventions and model output protocols adopted by repositories like Earth System Grid Federation and ESGF. Diagnostic toolkits and software are developed and distributed to modeling groups at institutions including NCAR, Princeton University’s NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory collaborators, and university research centers. Tools support evaluation against observational datasets from Global Precipitation Climatology Project, HadCRUT, ERSST, satellite records from NOAA, ESA, and reanalysis products such as ERA-Interim and MERRA-2.

Impact on Climate Science and Policy

PCMDI’s coordination of multi-model ensembles has directly influenced the scientific consensus presented in successive IPCC Assessment Reports and contributed evidence cited in UNFCCC negotiations and national climate assessments like the U.S. National Climate Assessment. Its standardized archives and diagnostics have enabled research by scientists at Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Princeton, and policy analysis within think tanks such as International Institute for Sustainable Development, World Resources Institute, and Brookings Institution. The program’s output informs adaptation and mitigation planning undertaken by agencies including United States Environmental Protection Agency, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and multilateral institutions like the World Bank.

Collaborations and Partnerships

PCMDI partners with a network of national modeling centers, academic departments, and international agencies including NOAA, NASA, ECMWF, UK Met Office, NIES, CSIRO, MPI, and consortia such as ESGF, CMIP, and the World Climate Research Programme. It engages in capacity-building with universities and research institutes across regions represented by African Union science initiatives, Asian Development Bank supported projects, and collaborations that include organizations like UNESCO, OECD, and philanthropic funders supporting open data and modeling infrastructure.

Category:Climate science organizations