Articles | Volume 19, issue 18
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-8731-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-8731-2026
Methods for assessment of models
 | 
18 Sep 2026
Methods for assessment of models |  | 18 Sep 2026

An ESMValTool-based framework for sanity checks, physical consistency and climate fidelity during model development – ICONEval v1.0

Axel Lauer, Manuel Schlund, Lisa Bock, Birgit Hassler, Gunnar Behrens, Bettina Gier, Lukas Lindenlaub, Stephan Lorenz, Jan-Hendrik Malles, Wolfgang A. Müller, Trang van Pham, Katja Weigel, Guang Zeng, and Veronika Eyring

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Cited articles

Adler, R. F., Sapiano, M. R. P., Huffman, George J. nd Wang, J.-J., Gu, G., Bolvin, D., Chiu, L., chneider, U., Becker, A., Nelkin, E., Xie, P., erraro, R., and Shin, D.-B.: The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Monthly Analysis (New Version 2.3) and a Review of 2017 Global Precipitation, Atmosphere, 9, https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9040138, 2018. a
Andela, B., Broetz, B., de Mora, L., Drost, N., Eyring, V., Koldunov, N., Lauer, A., Mueller, B., Predoi, V., Righi, M., Schlund, M., Vegas-Regidor, J., Zimmermann, K., Adeniyi, K., Castellani, G., Arnone, E., Bellprat, O., Berg, P., Billows, C., Blockley, E., Bock, L., Bodas-Salcedo, A., Caron, L.-P., Carvalhais, N., Cionni, I., Cortesi, N., Corti, S., Crezee, B., Davin, E. L., Davini, P., Deser, C., Diblen, F., Docquier, D., Dreyer, L., Ehbrecht, C., Earnshaw, P., Geddes, T., Gier, B., Gillett, E., Gonzalez-Reviriego, N., Goodman, P., Hagemann, S., Hall, S., Hardacre, C., von Hardenberg, J., Hassler, B., Heuer, H., Hogan, E., Hunter, A., Kadow, C., Kindermann, S., Koirala, S., Kuehbacher, B., Lledó, L., Lejeune, Q., Lembo, V., Little, B., Loosveldt-Tomas, S., Lorenz, R., Lovato, T., Lucarini, V., Malinina, E., Massonnet, F., Mohr, C. W., Amarjiit, P., Parsons, N., Pérez-Zanón, N., Phillips, A., Proft, M., Russell, J., Sandstad, M., Sellar, A., Senftleben, D., Serva, F., Sillmann, J., Stacke, T., Storkey, D., Swaminathan, R., Tomkins, K., Torralba, V., Weigel, K., Sarauer, E., Schulze, K., Roberts, C., Kalverla, P., Alidoost, S., Verhoeven, S., Vreede, B., Smeets, S., Soares Siqueira, A., Kazeroni, R., Potter, J., Winterstein, F., Beucher, R., Kraft, J., Ruhe, L., Bonnet, P., Munday, G., Chun, F., and Ellis, H.: ESMValTool, Zenodo [code], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3401363, 2026a. a
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Short summary
ICONEval is a new framework to facilitate researchers to continuously monitor and check their climate models during the development phase. It builds on the ESMValTool software package to run tests verifying that the results are plausible, follow physical laws, and that the model has sufficient skill in reproducing the observed climate. An important aim is to make it easier to spot model errors early, for example when implementing new model components that use machine learning.
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