Accessing ISIMIP data on the DKRZ server

Modellers actively participating in ISIMIP need a user account at DKRZ to access the ISIMIP input data and upload and access output data.

Creating a DKRZ account to access ISIMIP data

An individual username and password can be obtained using these steps:

• Fill out the new account form at DKRZ
• Click on the link in the email you receive and click on 'log in' to join the ISIMIP project
• Log in using your email address and the password you created
• Select 'Projects' > 'join existing project'
• Enter project number 820, shortly describe your institutional background, your context for using the ISIMIP data and send the form
• The project managers will approve your request as soon as possible (normally within 2-3 working days)
• You will receive a confirmation email including your username (something like b383300 - not your email address)
• You now have an account for the DKRZ server (and other services) where the ISIMIP input data are stored

Storage resources at DKRZ

By creating a DKRZ account, you will be granted access to the Levante system, which offers three different storage spaces:

• HOME – 30 GiB of personal backed up storage space
• WORK – the ISIMIP project storage space – use only the UploadArea within this directory; any other use should be agreed with the ISIMIP Data Management Team beforehand
• SCRATCH – 15 TiB of personal temporary storage space, automatically deleted after 14 days, which you can use to process large data sets

Check the further info about the Levante file systems.

Logging in to the DKRZ server

ISIMIP data at the DKRZ is preferably accessible via this server:

• levante.dkrz.de - a physical cluster running Linux for file transfers and post-processing.

Before using the system please visit the DKRZ user portal for more details especially the Public Key Authentication section.

Connecting and transferring data to and from these servers is only possible using rsync, ssh, sftp and scp - not http. For example:

via a terminal:

using WinSCP:

Directory structure

The ISIMIP data are located in the folder to /work/bb0820/ISIMIP/.

Data are then organised according to the simulation round. For each simulation round there are folders for:

• InputData. All data necessary to run your ISIMIP simulations organised into folders according to the type of data.
  
• UploadArea. This is where you should place your simulation data organised into sectors, models and time frames covered. Take care that only data belonging to a certain period is uploaded in the periods folders accordingly. Data will be moved from this folder on a daily basis for the purposes of the quality check. You cannot and should not download simulation data from other models from this location. Please be sure to read our important instructions about preparing your simulation files.
  
• OutputData. This is where you will find simulation data that has passed the quality check. If, for whatever reason, data in OutputData is replaced or removed, these changes will be documented in the Output Data Change Log. It is your responsibility to check this log before making official use of the output data (e.g. in a paper or conference presentation), to ensure you have the latest data.
• DerivedOutputData. Here you will find data products derived from ISIMIP simulation data, available for you to use.

Note: Any input data necessary to run your ISIMIP simulations or additional variables not included within our ISIMIP protocols will be placed, respectively, in our SecondaryInputData and SecondaryOutputData directories. However, due to our limited resources, any file in those directories has to be previously discussed with the sector coordinators and the data management team.

Examples

You want to download the land-only, bias-corrected, atmospheric data for ISIMIP2b for the GCM IPSL-CM5A-LR for the RCP2.6 scenario?

or

You want to upload your simulations?

You will need to follow our instructions to prepare your files, and place the files in the appropriate folders.

Specific Information for each simulation round

ISIMIP2b

You can see how the input data are organised at DKRZ on our ISIMIP2b input-data folder structure page.

ISIMIP2a

Before starting to download the ISIMIP2a input data, please read our important instructions about versioning

Notes on the folder Structure:

• For ISIMIP2a there is an additional InputData folder, EvaluationData, which contains data sets for model evaluation.
• The climate input data is stored into the HistObs directory (observational climate input data sets for historic validation runs).
• Previously, the Fast-Track climate input data for ISIMIP2a catch-up runs for sectors not in the ISIMIP Fast Track was also stored within the InputData folder FastTrackGCMs for ISIMIP2a. This data, however, has been removed from the ISIMIP2a protocol, and all related data has been moved to the Fast-Track directory.

ISIMIP Fast Track

Update from January 2020: All Fast Track data is not available anymore. Please use the data from ISIMIP2b since they are created on the basis of much improved bias-adjusted climate models. If you still need access to the Fast Track data, this is available upon request in very specific cases; please write to isimip-data@pik-potsdam.de.

There were two versions of the climate input data from the ISIMIP Fast Track:

• The first version was used to force impact models in the ISIMIP Fast Track phase and was only to be used for the ISIMIP2 catch-up experiments for sectors that were already part of the Fast Track (global water, global biomes, agriculture, vector-borne diseases & coastal systems).
• For all other purposes, i.e. future runs for new sectors and modeling exercises with no relation to ISIMIP, version 2 published under the ISIMIP2a ESGF project was used. This adjusted and extended version (denoted as ISIe in Hempel et al. 2013) overcame several limitations in adjusting the daily variability.