The Monash Simple Climate Model experiments (MSCM-DB v1.0): an interactive database of mean climate, climate change, and scenario simulations

Dommenget, Dietmar; Nice, Kerry; Bayr, Tobias; Kasang, Dieter; Stassen, Christian; Rezny, Michael

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-2155-2019

Articles | Volume 12, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-2155-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-2155-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 6

Model experiment description paper

|

03 Jun 2019

Model experiment description paper |

| 03 Jun 2019

The Monash Simple Climate Model experiments (MSCM-DB v1.0): an interactive database of mean climate, climate change, and scenario simulations

Dietmar Dommenget, Kerry Nice, Tobias Bayr, Dieter Kasang, Christian Stassen, and Michael Rezny

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Final revised paper (published on 03 Jun 2019)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 01 Aug 2018)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'review comments', Anonymous Referee #1, 06 Sep 2018
RC2: 'Review comments on “The Monash Simple Climate Model Experiments (MSCM-DB v1.0): An interactive database of mean climate, climate change and scenario simulations”', Anonymous Referee #2, 05 Oct 2018
AC1: 'authors respond to all referee comments (RCs)', Dietmar Dommenget, 15 Nov 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Dietmar Dommenget on behalf of the Authors (16 Nov 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (19 Nov 2018) by Min-Hui Lo

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (07 Dec 2018)

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (13 Dec 2018)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Review of “The Monash Simple Climate Model Experiments (MSCM-DB v1.0): An interactive database of mean climate, climate change and scenario simulations”, by Dommenget et al., submitted to Geoscientific Model Development.

Major Comments:
The authors address some of my previous comments. However, there are still missing information for the manuscript to be addressed.

It is NOT an excuse to use the limitation of the length of the journal for not to explain the information clearly when the reviewer clearly asks the authors to. The authors can always make other part of the manuscript concise. Also, the authors cannot just say that this is beyond the scope of this manuscript. If both reviewers raised the same concern, the authors should address the issues.

The major issue is still regarding the lack of discussion of feedbacks and interactions of clouds, circulation and also aerosols within the climate system in this particular model configuration since the “2xCO2 response deconstruction” and “Scenarios” are the two main foci of the manuscript. Since many research literatures are focusing on the feedbacks of these processes in response to changes in CO2 in the fully coupled GCMs, the authors should include the discussion of what the readers or users of this model should or should not expect the changes in temperature in response to different forcings when these processes (clouds, circulation and aerosols) are not included in the simulations.

The authors MUST address this particular issue or I cannot recommend for publication.

Detailed Comments
1. Line 35, this sentence is still not clear. Which mean climate processes have uncertainties on the order of 20-30%? A table for a list of processes showing the number of uncertainties of specific climate processes is necessary.

2. Line 589, the sentence is still confusing. What aspect(s) of the seasonal cycle (amplitude?) is reduced by the ocean?

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ED: Reconsider after major revisions (15 Dec 2018) by Min-Hui Lo

AR by Dietmar Dommenget on behalf of the Authors (13 Jan 2019) Author's response

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (15 Jan 2019) by Min-Hui Lo

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (17 Jan 2019)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Major Comments:

The authors still did not address my comments properly. I compared the latest revision (V7) and the last version (V6). The only paragraph added in 3b is the following:

****
In the above discussion on how the individual climate processes affect the climate we have to keep in mind the limitations of the GREB model and the experimental setups. The climate response to changing a single climate element is more complex in the real world than simulated in these GREB experiments. For instance, if the ocean heat capacity is turned ‘OFF’ it will not just have an effect on the effective heat capacity, but the resulting changes in surface temperature gradients will also affect the atmospheric circulation patterns and subsequently the cloud cover. Such effects on the atmospheric circulation and cloud cover are neglected in the GREB model, as they are given as fixed boundary conditions. Regionally such effects can be significant and CGCM simulations are equired to study such effects.
****

My original question remains the same:
The authors should include the discussion of what the readers or users of this model should or should not expect the changes in temperature in response to different forcings when these processes (clouds, circulation and aerosols) are not included in the simulations.

There are so many literatures discussing cloud feedbacks. The last IPCC report even have a chapter for clouds (https://archive.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_Chapter07_FINAL.pdf). One of the WCRP grand challenges also focuses on clouds, circulation and climate sensitivity (https://www.wcrp-climate.org/gc-clouds). The authors can start from here and review through the literatures to have a better discussion to address my comments.

Again, I am returning it back for another round of major revision. The authors MUST address this particular issue or I CANNOT recommend for publication. Also, the authors should include another track-change version of the revised manuscript showing what paragraphs are added to address my comments.

Hide

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (23 Jan 2019)

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (24 Jan 2019) by Min-Hui Lo

AR by Dietmar Dommenget on behalf of the Authors (05 Mar 2019) Author's response

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (02 Apr 2019) by Min-Hui Lo

AR by Svenja Lange on behalf of the Authors (18 Apr 2019) Author's response

ED: Publish as is (26 Apr 2019) by Min-Hui Lo

Short summary

This study describes the scientific basis for a public web page that gives access to a large set of climate model simulations. This web page is called the Monash Simple Climate Model. It provides access to more than 1300 experiments and has an interactive interface for fast analysis of the experiments and open access to the data. The study gives a short overview of the simulation experiments and discusses some of the results.