The Bern Simple Climate Model (BernSCM) v1.0: an extensible and fully documented open-source re-implementation of the Bern reduced-form model for global carbon cycle–climate simulations

Strassmann, Kuno M.; Joos, Fortunat

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1887-2018

Articles | Volume 11, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1887-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1887-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 5

Model description paper

|

25 May 2018

Model description paper |

| 25 May 2018

The Bern Simple Climate Model (BernSCM) v1.0: an extensible and fully documented open-source re-implementation of the Bern reduced-form model for global carbon cycle–climate simulations

Kuno M. Strassmann and Fortunat Joos

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Final revised paper (published on 25 May 2018)
Preprint (discussion started on 02 Nov 2017)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

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

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RC1: 'Report on Kuno Strassmann and Fortunat Joos - The Bern Simple Climate Model (BernSCM) v1.0: an extensible and fully documented open source reimplementation of the Bern reduced form model for global carbon cycle-climate simulations', Holger Metzler, 01 Dec 2017
RC2: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #2, 04 Dec 2017
AC1: 'Response to the comments by the reviewers.', Kuno Strassmann, 02 Mar 2018

Peer-review completion

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

AR by Kuno Strassmann on behalf of the Authors (02 Mar 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (19 Mar 2018) by Carlos Sierra

Dear authors,
thanks for preparing a revised version of your manuscript addressing reviewers' comments. The new version is much more improved and addresses well the main issues raised by the two reviewers. I only have a few minor comments that may help to improve the manuscript. Once they are addressed, we can proceed with manuscript for publication.

I also shared the concern of the reviewers about the potential violation of assumptions of the impulse response approach for the time-varying case. This issue is now clarified both in the answers to reviewers' comments and in the main text. However, I think there's still a few minor issues that could help to further clarify the issue.
- At the end of section 2.3, you added new text clarifying that the IRF approach is only valid if the subsystem is linear. Although the emphasis in linearity is very important, I think it is equally important to emphasize that the approach also relies on the assumption of time-invariance of the time-scales of the system. You may want to emphasize this assumption separately from the assumption of linearity since you may still have a linear model with first-order rates that doesn't meet the assumption of time-invariance.
- In several parts in the manuscript you make reference to 'box models', and I got the impression that the term may have different connotations in different contexts. Box model may mean very different things to different people. I would prefer if you use a less ambiguous term. For instance, it would be better to say that the IRF can be interpreted as a system of uncoupled first-order ordinary differential equations. Alternatively, you may want to provide a definition of box model when you first use the term.
- Eq. 1. In the text before the equation, specify that the budget equation is for 'atmospheric carbon'.
- Eq. 12. In the text before the equation, specify that the equation applies for a linear system with time-invariant rates with time-dependent forcing.
- Appendix A2. In the equation for NPP, is there a negative sign missing in the first exponential term? Please check.

Carlos A. Sierra

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AR by Kuno Strassmann on behalf of the Authors (23 Mar 2018) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

The Bern Simple Climate Model (BernSCM) is a free open-source re-implementation of a reduced-form carbon cycle–climate model widely used in science and IPCC assessments. BernSCM supports up to decadal time steps with high accuracy and is suitable for studies with high computational load, e.g., integrated assessment models (IAMs). Further applications include climate risk assessment in a business, public, or educational context and the estimation of benefits of emission mitigation options.