How Do MIPs Contribute to Scientific Reproducibility within Climate Science?

Commentary on the “crisis of reproducibility” within academic research tends to focus on individual research studies or the work of individual scholars. In Model Intercomparison Projects (MIPs), however, groups of researchers come together to define coordinated initiatives based around common research questions, datasets, and modeling scenarios. MIPs have a key role in building scientific confidence in the climate modeling enterprise writ large. Within climate science, MIPs advance knowledge of: a) the climate phenomena being modeled, and b) the building of climate models themselves.

This poster is focused on identifying how MIPs facilitate the scientific reproducibility of climate model-based research. The goal of the poster is to engage the AMS community in an exploration of the various ways in which MIPs enable specific components of reproducibility, including the verification, validation, comparability, and credibility of model results. The poster will discuss mechanisms and technologies for collecting, distributing, comparing, and analyzing data and models (infrastructural work), alongside corresponding governance structures, rules of participation, and collaboration mechanisms that enable partners around the world to work together effectively (institutional work). Finally, the poster will touch on changes over time in how reproducibility has been achieved within MIPs, corresponding to evolution in how MIPs have been organized and conducted over the past 20+ years.