CMIP data located at the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) covers a broad range of datasets, including CMIP5 and CMIP6 era replicated and published data as well as key observational and reanalysis datasets. For further information on the different climate datasets and available variables see the Datasets and Available Variables page. On this page we describe the methods in which the CMIP data hosted at NCI may be accessed. Sections in this page are broken into the following topics:
Access Options
Please note: External users who do not have an NCI user account are directed to option 2 below. Alternatively you may email help@nci.org.au if you are interested in attaining an NCI login.
Access to the CMIP and related data available is available via three key methods:
Access on the NCI filesystem.
Users with an NCI login may obtain direct access to the data replicated locally on the NCI filesystem and available with both the HPC facilities of raijin and the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).
- Users are encouraged to use ARCCSSive - a python module developed for ease of searching and accessing CMIP data at NCI. See Datasets and Available Variables for more information.
The ESGF data portal.
The Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) data portal provides access to CMIP datasets published by NCI and hosted across the international data nodes. Note, replica data is not currenlty published on NCI ESGF site. If you cannot use the data on raijin or the VDI, you may search for the CMIP data from the ESGF site. Note that a login account with an ESGF nodes is required to download data.
The Thredds catalog.
You may search for the CMIP data published at NCI on the THREDDS Data Service via the Geonetwork metadata catalog.
Australian published CMIP5 data is available on the THREDDS catalog under: http://dapds00.nci.org.au/thredds/catalog/rr3/catalog.html.
Detailed training on each of the access options may be found on the Training page.
Direct Data Access (NCI Users Only)
Primary access to the CMIP data, from both raijin and the VDI, is achieved via requesting to join the relevant project space (see below) and accessing the data from /g/data/<project code> (see table below).
| Australian Published CMIP Data | Replicated CMIP Data | Replicated Observational and Reanalysis Data | |
|---|---|---|---|
| NCI Project Code | TBC = CMIP6-era rr3 = CMIP5-era | oi10 = CMIP6-era al33 = CMIP5-era "official" - in progress ua6 = CMIP5-era "unofficial" | qv56 = input4MIPs |
Please note: currently CMIP5 replica data is available through the unofficial download space under /g/data/ua6/DRSv2. CMIP5 is undergoing a re-download process with data being downloaded to the official replica space under /g/data/al33. The transition from the "unofficial" to "official" space (ua6 → al33) is expected to take place some time in the second half of 2018. Regular updates prior to any transition activity will be communicated to users via the website and email.
Request to Access a Data Collection
You may request to join a data collection through my.nci.org.au/mancini. Your request will be sent to the data collection manager for approval and you must agree to the same Terms and Conditions that govern CMIP access data access as stipulated by the Earth Systems Grid Federation:
Data Organisation
To permit ease of use and interdisciplinary research, CMIP uses a standard naming convention for files, directories, metadata and URLs. These conventions are described in detail in the CMIP6 Controlled Vocabularies and CMIP5 Controlled Vocabulary
CMIP6 Published and Official Replica Data
Under the CMIP6 DRS, data may be found with the following directory format:
CMIP6/CMIP/<institution_id>/<source_id>/<experiment_id>/<member_id>/<table_id>/<variable>/<grid_label>/<version>
CMIP5 Australian Published and Official Replica Data
The CMIP5 published data (project code = rr3) and official replica data (project code = al33) can be found with the following directory structure:
/g/data/<project>/publications/CMIP5/output1/<institute>/<model>/<experiment>/<frequency>/<realm>/<table>/<ensemble>/<version><variable>
Note some of the key difference in the facets between CMIP5 and CMIP6, in particular "model" in CMIP5 has become "source_id" and "ensemble" has become "member_id". Other facets have similar names, though in CMIP6 the convention often includes an "_id".
CMIP5 Unofficial Replica Data
For historical reasons the currently available "unofficial" replica data in ua6 is organised with the following structure:
/g/data/ua6/DRSv2/CMIP5/<model>/<experiment>/<frequency>/<realm>/<ensemble>/<variable>/latest
Note that this data is not the official replica and is planned to be progressively decommissioned over time.
Definitions for directory format terms:
- institute/institution_id: the institution that produced the model output (e.g. CSIRO-BOM, UNSW, etc.)
- model/source_id: also refereed as source_id in CMIP6, it is the CMIP model name identifier.
- experiment/experiment_id: the CMIP experiment identifier (e.g., historical, piControl, rcp45, etc.)
- frequency: frequency identifier (e.g., 3hr, day, mon, etc.)
- realm: modelling realm (e.g., atmos, land, ocean, etc.)
- ensemble/member_id: ensemble or member_id, provides information on initialisation and physics identifier (e.g., r1i1p1, r1i1p2, etc.)
- variable/variable_id: output variable (see full list here)
- version: available versions, and 'latest' with symbolic links to the latest available version, where a version isn't available the creation date is used instead.
- table/table_id: For example "Amon" is short for atmosphere monthly, "Omon" is ocean monthly, etc.