How good are chemistry-climate models?

Kurzfassung

Chemistry-climate models (CCMs) are important tools for simulating stratospheric ozone changes that arise from changes in ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gases. Interest in providing reliable future projections of stratospheric ozone and its impact on climate has created a need to address how well the related key processes are represented in CCMs. The Chemistry-Climate Model Validation (CCMVal) activity is a response to this need. Here, the key processes and observations identified by CCMVal are reviewed. Results are presented to demonstrate the importance of a process-oriented and quantitative global model evaluation. In the future, similar evaluation strategies will be needed for Earth system models.