The dataset ‘Heat stored in the Earth system: Where does the energy go?’ contains a consistent long-term Earth system heat gain over the past 58 years. Human-induced atmospheric composition changes cause a radiative imbalance at the top-of-atmosphere which is driving global warming. This Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) is a fundamental metric of climate change. Understanding the heat gain of the Earth system from this accumulated heat – and particularly how much and where the heat is distributed in the Earth system - is fundamental to understanding how this affects warming oceans, atmosphere and land, rising temperatures and sea level, and loss of grounded and floating ice, which are fundamental concerns for society. This dataset is based on a study under the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) concerted international effort to update the Earth heat inventory, and presents an updated international assessment of ocean warming estimates, and new and updated estimates of heat gain in the atmosphere, cryosphere and land over the period 1960-2018.

‘Heat stored in the Earth system: Where does the energy go?’ contains a consistent long-term Earth system heat inventory over the period 1960-2018. Human-induced atmospheric composition changes cause a radiative imbalance at the top-of-atmosphere which is driving global warming. This Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) is the most critical number defining the prospects for continued global warming and climate change. Understanding the heat gain of the Earth system from this accumulated heat – and particularly how much and where the heat is distributed in the Earth system - is fundamental to understanding how this affects warming oceans, atmosphere and land, rising temperatures and sea level, and loss of grounded and floating ice, which are fundamental concerns for society. This dataset is based on a study under the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) concerted international effort to update the Earth heat inventory, and presents an updated international assessment of ocean warming estimates, and new and updated estimates of heat gain in the atmosphere, cryosphere and land over the period 1960-2018. Changes in version 2: a) uncertainties have been added and updated in the netcdf file b) Ocean heat content > 2000m depth: update of one time series, and thus revised ensemble mean c) Atmospheric heat content: update of the time series as received by experts on the 29/05/2020 d) Available heat cyropshere: update of the time series as received by experts on the 27/05/2020. e) some attributes have been added for more details.

piControl is an experiment of the CMIP5 - Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 ( https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5 ). CMIP5 is meant to provide a framework for coordinated climate change experiments for the next five years and thus includes simulations for assessment in the AR5 as well as others that extend beyond the AR5. 3.1 piControl (3.1 Pre-Industrial Control) - Version 1: Pre-Industrial coupled atmosphere/ocean control run. Imposes non-evolving pre-industrial conditions. Experiment design: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/experiment_design.html List of output variables: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/datadescription.html Output: time series per variable in model grid spatial resolution in netCDF format Earth System model and the simulation information: CIM repository Entry name/title of data are specified according to the Data Reference Syntax ( https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/docs/cmip5_data_reference_syntax.pdf ) as activity/product/institute/model/experiment/frequency/modeling realm/MIP table/ensemble member/version number/variable name/CMOR filename.nc .

historicalMisc is an experiment of the CMIP5 - Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 ( https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5 ). CMIP5 is meant to provide a framework for coordinated climate change experiments for the next five years and thus includes simulations for assessment in the AR5 as well as others that extend beyond the AR5. Experiment design: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/experiment_design.html List of output variables: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/datadescription.html Output: time series per variable in model grid spatial resolution in netCDF format Earth System model and the simulation information: CIM repository Entry name/title of data are specified according to the Data Reference Syntax ( https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/docs/cmip5_data_reference_syntax.pdf ) as activity/product/institute/model/experiment/frequency/modeling realm/MIP table/ensemble member/version number/variable name/CMOR filename.nc . Used forcings in individual ensemble runs (see attached addinfo for more information): r[1-10]i1p1 - Ant: greenhouse gases (GHG), anthropogenic sulfate aerosol direct and indirect effects (SA), black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC) via concentrations.

rcp85 is an experiment of the CMIP5 - Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 ( https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5 ). CMIP5 is meant to provide a framework for coordinated climate change experiments for the next five years and thus includes simulations for assessment in the AR5 as well as others that extend beyond the AR5. 4.2 rcp85 (4.2 RCP8.5) - Version 1: Future projection (2006-2100) forced by RCP8.5. RCP8.5 is a representative concentration pathway which approximately results in a radiative forcing of 8.5 W m-2 at year 2100, relative to pre-industrial conditions. RCPs are time-dependent, consistent projections of emissions and concentrations of radiatively active gases and particles. Experiment design: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/experiment_design.html List of output variables: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/datadescription.html Output: time series per variable in model grid spatial resolution in netCDF format Earth System model and the simulation information: CIM repository Entry name/title of data are specified according to the Data Reference Syntax ( https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/docs/cmip5_data_reference_syntax.pdf ) as activity/product/institute/model/experiment/frequency/modeling realm/MIP table/ensemble member/version number/variable name/CMOR filename.nc .

aqua4xco2 is an experiment of the CMIP5 - Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 ( https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5 ). CMIP5 is meant to provide a framework for coordinated climate change experiments for the next five years and thus includes simulations for assessment in the AR5 as well as others that extend beyond the AR5. aqua4xco2 (6.7b 4xCO2 aqua planet) - Version 2: Consistent with CFMIP requirements, impose a 4xCO2 on zonally uniform SSTs of expt. 6.7a (which is the control for this run). Experiment design: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/experiment_design.html List of output variables: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/datadescription.html Output: time series per variable in model grid spatial resolution in netCDF format Earth System model and the simulation information: CIM repository Entry name/title of data are specified according to the Data Reference Syntax ( https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/docs/cmip5_data_reference_syntax.pdf ) as activity/product/institute/model/experiment/frequency/modeling realm/MIP table/ensemble member/version number/variable name/CMOR filename.nc .

'amip' is an experiment of the CMIP5 - Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5). CMIP5 is meant to provide a framework for coordinated climate change experiments for the next five years and thus includes simulations for assessment in the AR5 as well as others that extend beyond the AR5. 3.3 amip (3.3 AMIP) - Version 1: AMIP (1979 - at least 2008). Impose SSTs and sea ice from observations but with other conditions as in experiment 3.2 historical. Experiment design: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/experiment_design.html List of output variables: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/datadescription.html Output: time series per variable in model grid spatial resolution in netCDF format Earth System model and the simulation information: CIM repository Entry name/title of data are specified according to the Data Reference Syntax (https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/docs/cmip5_data_reference_syntax.pdf) as activity/product/institute/model/experiment/frequency/modeling realm/MIP table/ensemble member/version number/variable name/CMOR filename.nc.

'abrupt4xco2' is an experiment of the CMIP5 - Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5). CMIP5 is meant to provide a framework for coordinated climate change experiments for the next five years and thus includes simulations for assessment in the AR5 as well as others that extend beyond the AR5. 6.3 abrupt4xco2 (6.3 Abrupt 4XCO2) - Version 1: Impose an instantaneous quadrupling of CO2, then hold fixed. Experiment design: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/experiment_design.html List of output variables: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/datadescription.html Output: time series per variable in model grid spatial resolution in netCDF format Earth System model and the simulation information: CIM repository Entry name/title of data are specified according to the Data Reference Syntax (https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/docs/cmip5_data_reference_syntax.pdf) as activity/product/institute/model/experiment/frequency/modeling realm/MIP table/ensemble member/version number/variable name/CMOR filename.nc.

'historicalGHG' is an experiment of the CMIP5 - Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5). CMIP5 is meant to provide a framework for coordinated climate change experiments for the next five years and thus includes simulations for assessment in the AR5 as well as others that extend beyond the AR5. 7.2 historicalGHG (7.2 GHG-only historical) - Version 1: Historical simulation but with greenhouse gas forcing only. Experiment design: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/experiment_design.html List of output variables: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/datadescription.html Output: time series per variable in model grid spatial resolution in netCDF format Earth System model and the simulation information: CIM repository Entry name/title of data are specified according to the Data Reference Syntax (https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/docs/cmip5_data_reference_syntax.pdf) as activity/product/institute/model/experiment/frequency/modeling realm/MIP table/ensemble member/version number/variable name/CMOR filename.nc.

esmFixClim is an experiment of the CMIP5 - Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 ( https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5 ). CMIP5 is meant to provide a framework for coordinated climate change experiments for the next five years and thus includes simulations for assessment in the AR5 as well as others that extend beyond the AR5. 5.4-1 esmFixClim (5.4-1 ESM fixed climate 1) - Version 1: Radiation code sees piControl CO2 concentration, but carbon cycle sees 1% per year rise. Experiment design: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/experiment_design.html List of output variables: https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/datadescription.html Output: time series per variable in model grid spatial resolution in netCDF format Earth System model and the simulation information: CIM repository Entry name/title of data are specified according to the Data Reference Syntax ( https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/docs/cmip5_data_reference_syntax.pdf ) as activity/product/institute/model/experiment/frequency/modeling realm/MIP table/ensemble member/version number/variable name/CMOR filename.nc .