Idealized volcanic-forcing coupled climate model experiment using the 1991 Pinatubo forcing as used in the CMIP6 historical simulations. It is a Tier 1 (mandatory) VolMIP experiment based on a large ensemble of short-term “Pinatubo” climate simulations aimed at accurately estimating simulated responses to volcanic forcing that may be comparable to the amplitude of internal interannual climate variability. Initialization is based on equally distributed predefined states of ENSO (cold/neutral/warm states) and of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO, negative/neutral/positive states). Sampling of an eastern phase of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO), as observed after the 1991 Pinatubo eruption, is preferred for those models that spontaneously generate such mode of stratospheric variability. VIRF diagnostics must be calculated for this experiment for the whole integration and for all ensemble members, as these are required for the “volc-pinatubo-strat”/“surf” experiments. A minimum length of integration of 3 years is requested. Details about the experiment are provided by Zanchettin et al. (2016). The dataset contains monthly values of selected variables spatially averaged over four regions. These are the full globe (GL), the Northern Hemisphere extratropics (30°-90°N, NH), the tropics (30°S-30°N, TR), and the Southern Hemisphere (30°-90°S, hereafter SH). The considered variables have the following cmor names: hfls, hfss, pr, rlds, rldscs, rlus, rlut, rlutcs, rsds, rsdscs, rsdt, rsus, rsut, rsutcs, tas. Additionally, the climate indices NAO and Nino34 are part of the dataset. Considered models are CanESM5, IPSL-CM6A-LR, GISS-E2.1-G, MIROC-ES2L, MPI-ESM1.2-LR (named MPI-ESM-LR in the files of this dataset) and UKESM1. Considered experiments are piControl and volc-pinatubo-full, with initial date and final date as specified for each model in Zanchettin et al. (2021). Different realizations are considered for the participating models depending on availability.

Idealized volcanic-forcing coupled climate model experiment using the 1991 Pinatubo forcing as used in the CMIP6 historical simulations. It is a Tier 1 (mandatory) VolMIP experiment based on a large ensemble of short-term “Pinatubo” climate simulations aimed at accurately estimating simulated responses to volcanic forcing that may be comparable to the amplitude of internal interannual climate variability. Initialization is based on equally distributed predefined states of ENSO (cold/neutral/warm states) and of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO, negative/neutral/positive states). Sampling of an eastern phase of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO), as observed after the 1991 Pinatubo eruption, is preferred for those models that spontaneously generate such mode of stratospheric variability. VIRF diagnostics must be calculated for this experiment for the whole integration and for all ensemble members, as these are required for the “volc-pinatubo-strat”/“surf” experiments. A minimum length of integration of 3 years is requested. Details about the experiment are provided by Zanchettin et al. (2016). The dataset contains monthly values of selected variables spatially averaged over four regions. These are the full globe (GL), the Northern Hemisphere extratropics (30°-90°N, NH), the tropics (30°S-30°N, TR), and the Southern Hemisphere (30°-90°S, hereafter SH). The considered variables have the following cmor names: hfls, hfss, pr, rlds, rldscs, rlus, rlut, rlutcs, rsds, rsdscs, rsdt, rsus, rsut, rsutcs, tas. Additionally, the climate indices NAO and Nino34 are part of the dataset. Considered models are CanESM5, IPSL-CM6A-LR, GISS-E2.1-G, MIROC-ES2L, MPI-ESM1.2-LR (named MPI-ESM-LR in the files of this dataset) and UKESM1. Considered experiments are piControl and volc-pinatubo-full, with initial date and final date as specified for each model in Zanchettin et al. (2021). Different realizations are considered for the participating models depending on availability.

This database contains 1000 realizations of volcanic stratospheric sulfur injection and stratospheric aerosol optical depth, based on the eVolv2k_v3 reconstruction (https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/eVolv2k_v3), incorporating estimated uncertainties in sulfur injection magnitude and eruption timing.

This data set is an ensemble reconstruction of volcanic stratospheric sulfur injection (VSSI) and stratospheric aerosol optical depth (SAOD) over the last 130,000 years that is based primarily on terrestrial and marine tephra records. VSSI values are computed as a simple function of eruption magnitude, based on VSSI estimates from ice cores and satellite observations for identified eruptions. To correct for the incompleteness of the tephra record, we include stochastically generated synthetic eruptions, assuming a constant background eruption frequency from the ice core Holocene record. SAOD is provided using the VSSI as input to the EVA stratospheric aerosol forcing generator.

ModE-Sim (short for Modern Era Simulations) is a medium-size ensemble of model simulations using the ECHAM6 atmosphere general circulation model (model version 6.3.5p2, doi:10.17617/2.1810480). Its setup is based on the PMIP4 experiments, but uses a forced AGCM rather than a fully coupled model. ModE-Sim was originally designed to form the a-priori state for a climate reconstruction (Modern Era Reanalysis, ModE-RA, to be found as separate experiment within this WDC project) that uses an offline data assimilation technique to combine the output of ModE-Sim with historical climate information. However, beyond its original purpose ModE-Sim on its own can be used as a tool to study climate variability, providing a high number of posible climate states that are physically plausible under the given forcings and boundary conditions. This might include, e.g. the separation of internal variability from the response to externally forced signals, understanding of teleconnection patterns, or the study of extreme events. The ensemble uses observed/reconstructed forcings and boundary conditions, while accounting in uncertainties in these. For 1420 to 1850 we provide a 60 member ensemble grouped in three subsets. The subset 1420-2 provided in this dataset group has 20 members and uses a 20-member ensemble of perturbed volcanic forcings from the easy volcanic aerosol (EVA) model to account for uncertainties in the strength and the timing of volcanic eruptions. As ocean boundary condition 20 different realizations of SST reconstructions were used and for sea ice analogues were picked from the HadISST2 sea ice, based on the reconstructed SST fields.

ModE-Sim (short for Modern Era Simulations) is a medium-size ensemble of model simulations using the ECHAM6 atmosphere general circulation model (model version 6.3.5p2, doi:10.17617/2.1810480). Its setup is based on the PMIP4 experiments, but uses a forced AGCM rather than a fully coupled model. ModE-Sim was originally designed to form the a-priori state for a climate reconstruction (Modern Era Reanalysis, ModE-RA, to be found as separate experiment within this WDC project) that uses an offline data assimilation technique to combine the output of ModE-Sim with historical climate information. However, beyond its original purpose ModE-Sim on its own can be used as a tool to study climate variability, providing a high number of posible climate states that are physically plausible under the given forcings and boundary conditions. This might include, e.g. the separation of internal variability from the response to externally forced signals, understanding of teleconnection patterns, or the study of extreme events. The ensemble uses observed/reconstructed forcings and boundary conditions, while accounting in uncertainties in these. For 1850 to 2009 ModE-Sim offers 36 members grouped in two subsets, all using PMIP4 radiative forcings. The subset 1850-2 provided in this dataset group has 16 members and uses linear combinations of HadISST2 realizations as SST and HadISST sea ice as ocean boundary conditions.

ModE-Sim (short for Modern Era Simulations) is a medium-size ensemble of model simulations using the ECHAM6 atmosphere general circulation model (model version 6.3.5p2, doi:10.17617/2.1810480). Its setup is based on the PMIP4 experiments, but uses a forced AGCM rather than a fully coupled model. ModE-Sim was originally designed to form the a-priori state for a climate reconstruction (Modern Era Reanalysis, ModE-RA, to be found as separate experiment within this WDC project) that uses an offline data assimilation technique to combine the output of ModE-Sim with historical climate information. However, beyond its original purpose ModE-Sim on its own can be used as a tool to study climate variability, providing a high number of posible climate states that are physically plausible under the given forcings and boundary conditions. This might include, e.g. the separation of internal variability from the response to externally forced signals, understanding of teleconnection patterns, or the study of extreme events. The ensemble uses observed/reconstructed forcings and boundary conditions, while accounting in uncertainties in these. For 1850 to 2009 ModE-Sim offers 36 members grouped in two subsets, all using PMIP4 radiative forcings. The subset 1850-1 provided in this dataset group has 20 members and uses 10 different realizations of HadISST2 (two different ModE-Sim members share one realization of HadISST while they differ in their initialization) and according sea ice as ocean boundary conditions. In contrast to the other ModE-Sim sets, for set 1850-1 no forcings are provided within this dataset group. This is because for set 1850-1 only standard forcings and boundary conditions were used, i.e. PMIP4 volcanoes and HadISST sea surface temperatures and sea ice concentrations https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadisst2/.

ModE-Sim (short for Modern Era Simulations) is a medium-size ensemble of model simulations using the ECHAM6 atmosphere general circulation model (model version 6.3.5p2, doi:10.17617/2.1810480). Its setup is based on the PMIP4 experiments, but uses a forced AGCM rather than a fully coupled model. ModE-Sim was originally designed to form the a-priori state for a climate reconstruction (Modern Era Reanalysis, ModE-RA, to be found as separate experiment within this WDC project) that uses an offline data assimilation technique to combine the output of ModE-Sim with historical climate information. However, beyond its original purpose ModE-Sim on its own can be used as a tool to study climate variability, providing a high number of posible climate states that are physically plausible under the given forcings and boundary conditions. This might include, e.g. the separation of internal variability from the response to externally forced signals, understanding of teleconnection patterns, or the study of extreme events. The ensemble uses observed/reconstructed forcings and boundary conditions, while accounting in uncertainties in these. For 1420 to 1850 we provide a 60 member ensemble grouped in three subsets. The subset 1420-3 provided in this dataset group has 20 members and uses PMIP4 radiative forcings. As ocean boundary condition 20 different realizations of SST reconstructions were used and for sea ice a climatology was computed from the years 1850-1900 from HadISST2 sea ice.

ModE-Sim (short for Modern Era Simulations) is a medium-size ensemble of model simulations using the ECHAM6 atmosphere general circulation model (model version 6.3.5p2, doi:10.17617/2.1810480). Its setup is based on the PMIP4 experiments, but uses a forced AGCM rather than a fully coupled model. ModE-Sim was originally designed to form the a-priori state for a climate reconstruction (Modern Era Reanalysis, ModE-RA, to be found as separate experiment within this WDC project) that uses an offline data assimilation technique to combine the output of ModE-Sim with historical climate information. However, beyond its original purpose ModE-Sim on its own can be used as a tool to study climate variability, providing a high number of posible climate states that are physically plausible under the given forcings and boundary conditions. This might include, e.g. the separation of internal variability from the response to externally forced signals, understanding of teleconnection patterns, or the study of extreme events. The ensemble uses observed/reconstructed forcings and boundary conditions, while accounting in uncertainties in these. For 1420 to 1850 we provide a 60 member ensemble grouped in three subsets. The subset 1420-1 provided in this dataset group has 20 members and uses PMIP4 radiative forcings. As ocean boundary condition 20 different realizations of SST reconstructions were used and for sea ice analogues were picked from the HadISST2 sea ice, based on the reconstructed SST fields.