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The results of climate models are of increasing and widespread importance. No longer is climate model output of sole interest to climate scientists and researchers in the climate change impacts and adaptation fields. Now nonspecialists such as government officials, policy makers, and the general public all have an increasing need to access climate model output and understand its implications. For this host of users, accurate and complete metadata (i.e., information about how and why the data were produced) is required to document the climate modeling results. Here we describe a pilot community initiative to collect and make available documentation of climate models and their simulations. In an initial application, a metadata repository is being established to provide information of this kind for a major internationally coordinated modeling activity known as CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, Phase 5). It is expected that for a wide range of stakeholders, this and similar community-managed metadata repositories will spur development of analysis tools that facilitate discovery and exploitation of Earth system simulations. INSETS: THE METAFOR PROJECT;USING THE CMIP5 MODEL AND SIMULATION DESCRIPTION PORTALS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the highlights of the Infrastructure Project European Network for Earth System Modelling (IS-ENES) Workshop on High-Performance Computing for Climate Models that was held in December 2011 in Lecce, Italy. Topics discussed include a review of the context of European Union (EU) exascale projects and the major advances taking in the U.S. and Europe. The data challenge for climate models is also explored.