The ICON-based Earth System Model for climate predictions and projections (ICON XPP v1.0)

Müller, Wolfgang A.; Lorenz, Stephan; Pham, Trang V.; Schneidereit, Andrea; Brokopf, Renate; Brovkin, Victor; Brüggemann, Nils; Chegini, Fatemeh; Dommenget, Dietmar; Fröhlich, Kristina; Früh, Barbara; Gayler, Veronika; Haak, Helmuth; Hagemann, Stefan; Hanke, Moritz; Ilyina, Tatiana; Jungclaus, Johann; Köhler, Martin; Korn, Peter; Kornblueh, Luis; Kroll, Clarissa A.; Krüger, Julian; Castro-Morales, Karel; Niemeier, Ulrike; Pohlmann, Holger; Polkova, Iuliia; Potthast, Roland; Riddick, Thomas; Schlund, Manuel; Stacke, Tobias; Wirth, Roland; Yu, Dakuan; Marotzke, Jochem

doi:10.5194/gmd-18-9385-2025

Articles | Volume 18, issue 23

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-9385-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-9385-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 23

Model evaluation paper

|

03 Dec 2025

Model evaluation paper |

| 03 Dec 2025

The ICON-based Earth System Model for climate predictions and projections (ICON XPP v1.0)

Wolfgang A. Müller, Stephan Lorenz, Trang V. Pham, Andrea Schneidereit, Renate Brokopf, Victor Brovkin, Nils Brüggemann, Fatemeh Chegini, Dietmar Dommenget, Kristina Fröhlich, Barbara Früh, Veronika Gayler, Helmuth Haak, Stefan Hagemann, Moritz Hanke, Tatiana Ilyina, Johann Jungclaus, Martin Köhler, Peter Korn, Luis Kornblueh, Clarissa A. Kroll, Julian Krüger, Karel Castro-Morales, Ulrike Niemeier, Holger Pohlmann, Iuliia Polkova, Roland Potthast, Thomas Riddick, Manuel Schlund, Tobias Stacke, Roland Wirth, Dakuan Yu, and Jochem Marotzke

Data sets

ERA5 monthly averaged data on pressure levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/CDS.6860A573

ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.f17050d7

Model code and software

Source code and scripts for publication "The ICON-based coupled Earth System Model for Climate Predictions and Projections (ICON XPP)" Müller W. A. et al. https://doi.org/10.17617/3.UUIIZ8

ESMValCore B. Andela et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3387139

ESMValTool B. Andela et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3401363

Short summary

We provide a new Earth System model configuration framed into the ICON architecture, which provides the baseline for the next generation of climate predictions and projections (hereafter ICON XPP). Two resolutions of ICON XPP are presented that show high runtime performances making it suitable to run long integrations and large-ensemble experiments. ICON XPP similarly perform to CMIP6-class of climate models making it a good basis for climate forecasts and projections, and climate research.