Developmental Testbed Center: Informing Earth System Model Development Through Model Testing and Evaluation Solutions

The Developmental Testbed Center (DTC) is a partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States Air Force (USAF) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The DTC’s vision is to empower the Earth system science community with model testing and evaluation solutions. Its mission is to bridge research and operations to accelerate understanding of and improvements to predicting the Earth System by advancing collaborative model assessments and indispensable software tools. The DTC develops and supports two key software tools that are central to a hierarchical testing framework (HTF) for the atmospheric component of Earth System Models (ESMs) – the Common Community Physics Package (CCPP) and its companion Single-Column Model (SCM) and the enhanced Model Evaluation Tools (METplus) verification package. Through the application of these tools, the DTC collaborates closely with the research and operational communities to conduct experiments that identify and analyze biases in ESMs and provide diagnostic insights into their origins. This presentation will describe how the DTC is working closely with the ESM community, including cross-testbed collaborations, to engage in in-depth testing and evaluation activities that offer valuable diagnostic information that guides model development.