First results from ModE-Sim - A medium size AGCM ensemble to study climate variability during the past 600 years

ModE-Sim is a medium size ensemble that can be used to study climate variability of the past 600 years. It was created using the atmospheric general circulation model ECHAM6 in its LR version (T63L47). With 60 ensemble members between 1420 and 1850 and 36 ensemble members from 1850 to 2009 ModE-Sim consists of 31620 simulated years in total. The dataset was designed as an input for a data assimilation procedure that combines historical climate informations with additional constraints from a climate model to produce a novel gridded 3-dimensional dataset of the modern era. Additionally, ModE-Sim on its own is also suitable for many other applications as its various subsets can be used as initial condition ensemble to study climate variability. We show that the ensemble has a realistic response to external forcings and that it is capable of capturing internal variability on monthly to annual time scales. At the example of heat waves we show that ModE-Sim can even be useful to study extreme events.