CMIP7 scientific objectives, experimental design, and organization
CMIP7 scientific objectives, experimental design, and organization
Editor(s): GMD topic editors | Coordinators: John Dunne (NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, United States), Helene Hewitt (Met Office, United Kingdom), and Eleanor O'Rourke (WCRP-CMIP International Project Office, United Kingdom)

From its origins as a punctuated phasing of a few key coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model experiments, the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) has evolved into a continuous climate Earth system modelling programme supported by design of experimental protocol, forcing dataset development, infrastructure solutions, and format requirements. These defined phases tackle key and timely climate science questions and facilitate delivery of relevant multi-model simulations through shared infrastructure for the benefit of the climate research community, climate impact and adaptation practitioners, national and international climate assessments, and society at large. In a series of invited contributions, this special issue describes the evolving design and organization of CMIP, the suite of experiments of its seventh phase (CMIP7) including the new CMIP7 Assessment Fast Track component and registered model intercomparison projects (MIPs) adhering to CMIP data standards and best-practice experimental protocol and data requests, and enabling infrastructure. The papers provide the required information to produce a consistent set of climate model simulations that can be scientifically exploited to support the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) science priorities, which currently include Fundamental understanding of the climate system, Prediction of the near-term evolution of the climate system, Long-term response of the climate system, and Bridging climate science and society, and future climate assessments informing policy and decision-making. A separate GMD special issue is providing an overview of the various CMIP7 forcings.

Review process: all papers of this special issue underwent the regular interactive peer-review process of Geoscientific Model Development handled by members of the GMD editorial board.

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01 Oct 2025
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An evolving Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 7 (CMIP7) and Fast Track in support of future climate assessment
John P. Dunne, Helene T. Hewitt, Julie M. Arblaster, Frédéric Bonou, Olivier Boucher, Tereza Cavazos, Beth Dingley, Paul J. Durack, Birgit Hassler, Martin Juckes, Tomoki Miyakawa, Matt Mizielinski, Vaishali Naik, Zebedee Nicholls, Eleanor O'Rourke, Robert Pincus, Benjamin M. Sanderson, Isla R. Simpson, and Karl E. Taylor
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 6671–6700, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-6671-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-6671-2025, 2025
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24 Sep 2025
A sea ice free Arctic: Assessment Fast Track abrupt-127k experimental protocol and motivation
Louise C. Sime, Rachel Diamond, Christian Stepanek, Chris Brierley, David Schroeder, Masa Kageyama, Irene Malmierca-Vallet, Ed Blockley, Alex West, Danny Feltham, Jeff Ridley, Pascale Braconnot, Charles J. R. Williams, Xiaoxu Shi, Bette L. Otto-Bliesner, Sophia I. Macarewich, Silvana Ramos Buarque, Qiong Zhang, Allegra LeGrande, Weipeng Zheng, Dabang Jiang, Polina Morozova, Chuncheng Guo, Zhongshi Zhang, Nicholas Yeung, Laurie Menviel, Sandeep Narayanasetti, Olivia Reeves, Matthew Pollock, and Anni Zhao
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3531,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3531, 2025
Preprint under review for GMD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
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23 Sep 2025
The TIPMIP Earth system model experiment protocol: phase 1
Colin Jones, Isaline Bossert, Donovan P. Dennis, Hazel Jeffery, Chris D. Jones, Torben Koenigk, Sina Loriani, Benjamin Sanderson, Roland Séférian, Klaus Wyser, Shuting Yang, Manabu Abe, Sebastian Bathiany, Pascale Braconnot, Victor Brovkin, Friedrich A. Burger, Patrica Cadule, Frederic S. Castruccio, Gokhan Danabasoglu, Andrea Dittus, Jonathan F. Donges, Friederike Fröb, Thomas Frölicher, Goran Georgievski, Chuncheng Guo, Aixue Hu, Peter Lawrence, Paul Lerner, José Licón-Saláiz, Bette Otto-Bliesner, Anastasia Romanou, Elena Shevliakova, Yona Silvy, Didier Swingedouw, Jerry Tjiputra, Jeremy Walton, Andy Wiltshire, Ricarda Winkelmann, Richard Wood, Tokuta Yokohata, and Tilo Ziehn
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3604,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3604, 2025
Preprint under review for GMD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
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17 Sep 2025
The Radiative Forcing Model Intercomparison Project (RFMIP2.0) for CMIP7
Ryan Kramer, Chris Smith, and Timothy Andrews
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4378,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4378, 2025
Preprint under review for GMD (discussion: open, 0 comments)
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22 Jul 2025
The Detection and Attribution Model Intercomparison Project (DAMIP v2.0) contribution to CMIP7
Nathan P. Gillett, Isla R. Simpson, Gabi Hegerl, Reto Knutti, Dann Mitchell, Aurélien Ribes, Hideo Shiogama, Dáithí Stone, Claudia Tebaldi, Piotr Wolski, Wenxia Zhang, and Vivek K. Arora
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 4399–4416, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-4399-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-4399-2025, 2025
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18 Jul 2025
CMIP7 Data Request: Impacts and Adaptation Priorities and Opportunities
Alex C. Ruane, Charlotte L. Pascoe, Claas Teichmann, David J. Brayshaw, Carlo Buontempo, Ibrahima Diouf, Jesus Fernandez, Paula L. M. Gonzalez, Birgit Hassler, Vanessa Hernaman, Ulas Im, Doroteaciro Iovino, Martin Juckes, Iréne L. Lake, Timothy Lam, Xiaomao Lin, Jiafu Mao, Negin Nazarian, Sylvie Parey, Indrani Roy, Wan-Ling Tseng, Briony Turner, Andrew Wiebe, Lei Zhao, and Damaris Zurell
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3408,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3408, 2025
Revised manuscript under review for GMD (discussion: final response, 8 comments)
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18 Jul 2025
CMIP7 Data Request: Land and Land Ice Priorities and Opportunities
Yue Li, Gang Tang, Eleanor O’Rourke, Samar Minallah, Martim Mas e Braga, Sophie Nowicki, Robin S. Smith, David M. Lawrence, George C. Hurtt, Daniele Peano, Gesa Meyer, Birgit Hassler, Jiafu Mao, Yongkang Xue, and Martin Juckes
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3207,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3207, 2025
Preprint under review for GMD (discussion: open, 1 comment)
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16 Jul 2025
CMIP7 Data Request: Earth System Priorities and Opportunities
Mara Y. McPartland, Tomas Lovato, Charles D. Koven, Jamie D. Wilson, Briony Turner, Colleen M. Petrik, José Licón-Saláiz, Fang Li, Fanny Lhardy, Jaclyn Clement Kinney, Michio Kawamiya, Birgit Hassler, Nathan P. Gillett, Cheikh Modou Noreyni Fall, Christopher Danek, Chris M. Brierley, Ana Bastos, and Oliver Andrews
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3246,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3246, 2025
Preprint under review for GMD (discussion: open, 1 comment)
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11 Jul 2025
CMIP7 Data Request: Atmosphere Priorities and Opportunities
Beth Dingley, James A. Anstey, Marta Abalos, Carsten Abraham, Tommi Bergman, Lisa Bock, Sonya Fiddes, Birgit Hassler, Ryan J. Kramer, Fei Luo, Fiona M. O'Connor, Petr Šácha, Isla R. Simpson, Laura J. Wilcox, and Mark D. Zelinka
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3189,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3189, 2025
Preprint under review for GMD (discussion: open, 1 comment)
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11 Jul 2025
Rapid Evaluation Framework for the CMIP7 Assessment Fast Track
Forrest M. Hoffman, Birgit Hassler, Ranjini Swaminathan, Jared Lewis, Bouwe Andela, Nathaniel Collier, Dóra Hegedűs, Jiwoo Lee, Charlotte Pascoe, Mika Pflüger, Martina Stockhause, Paul Ullrich, Min Xu, Lisa Bock, Felicity Chun, Bettina K. Gier, Douglas I. Kelley, Axel Lauer, Julien Lenhardt, Manuel Schlund, Mohanan G. Sreeush, Katja Weigel, Ed Blockley, Rebecca Beadling, Romain Beucher, Demiso D. Dugassa, Valerio Lembo, Jianhua Lu, Swen Brands, Jerry Tjiputra, Elizaveta Malinina, Brian Mederios, Enrico Scoccimarro, Jeremy Walton, Philip Kershaw, André L. Marquez, Malcolm J. Roberts, Eleanor O’Rourke, Elisabeth Dingley, Briony Turner, Helene Hewitt, and John P. Dunne
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2685,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2685, 2025
Preprint under review for GMD (discussion: open, 1 comment)
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03 Jul 2025
CMIP7 Data Request: Ocean and Sea Ice Priorities and Opportunities
Baylor Fox-Kemper, Patricia DeRepentigny, Anne Marie Treguier, Christian Stepanek, Eleanor O’Rourke, Chloe Mackallah, Alberto Meucci, Yevgeny Aksenov, Paul J. Durack, Nicole Feldl, Vanessa Hernaman, Céline Heuzé, Doroteaciro Iovino, Gaurav Madan, André L. Marquez, François Massonnet, Jenny Mecking, Dhrubajyoti Samanta, Patrick C. Taylor, Wan-Ling Tseng, and Martin Vancoppenolle
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3083,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3083, 2025
Preprint under review for GMD (discussion: final response, 3 comments)
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14 May 2025
Baseline Climate Variables for Earth System Modelling
Martin Juckes, Karl E. Taylor, Fabrizio Antonio, David Brayshaw, Carlo Buontempo, Jian Cao, Paul J. Durack, Michio Kawamiya, Hyungjun Kim, Tomas Lovato, Chloe Mackallah, Matthew Mizielinski, Alessandra Nuzzo, Martina Stockhause, Daniele Visioni, Jeremy Walton, Briony Turner, Eleanor O'Rourke, and Beth Dingley
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 2639–2663, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-2639-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-2639-2025, 2025
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03 Mar 2025
High-Resolution Model Intercomparison Project phase 2 (HighResMIP2) towards CMIP7
Malcolm J. Roberts, Kevin A. Reed, Qing Bao, Joseph J. Barsugli, Suzana J. Camargo, Louis-Philippe Caron, Ping Chang, Cheng-Ta Chen, Hannah M. Christensen, Gokhan Danabasoglu, Ivy Frenger, Neven S. Fučkar, Shabeh ul Hasson, Helene T. Hewitt, Huanping Huang, Daehyun Kim, Chihiro Kodama, Michael Lai, Lai-Yung Ruby Leung, Ryo Mizuta, Paulo Nobre, Pablo Ortega, Dominique Paquin, Christopher D. Roberts, Enrico Scoccimarro, Jon Seddon, Anne Marie Treguier, Chia-Ying Tu, Paul A. Ullrich, Pier Luigi Vidale, Michael F. Wehner, Colin M. Zarzycki, Bosong Zhang, Wei Zhang, and Ming Zhao
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 1307–1332, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1307-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1307-2025, 2025
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30 Jan 2025
The Scenario Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP7 (ScenarioMIP-CMIP7)  
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3765,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3765, 2025
(discussion: final response, 18 comments)
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14 Jan 2025
The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP): Reviewing project history, evolution, infrastructure and implementation
Paul J. Durack, Karl E. Taylor, Peter J. Gleckler, Gerald A. Meehl, Bryan N. Lawrence, Curt Covey, Ronald J. Stouffer, Guillaume Levavasseur, Atef Ben-Nasser, Sebastien Denvil, Martina Stockhause, Jonathan M. Gregory, Martin Juckes, Sasha K. Ames, Fabrizio Antonio, David C. Bader, John P. Dunne, Daniel Ellis, Veronika Eyring, Sandro L. Fiore, Sylvie Joussaume, Philip Kershaw, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Michael Lautenschlager, Jiwoo Lee, Chris F. Mauzey, Matthew Mizielinski, Paola Nassisi, Alessandra Nuzzo, Eleanor O’Rourke, Jeffrey Painter, Gerald L. Potter, Sven Rodriguez, and Dean N. Williams
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3729,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3729, 2025
Preprint under review for GMD (discussion: final response, 10 comments)
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