PTBox, a toolbox to facilitate palaeoclimate model-data analyses
2022-03-27

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;Recent progress in modelling the Earth system has made it possible to produce transient climate simulations &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;longer than 10.000 years with comprehensive ESMs. These simulations&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt; improv&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;e&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt; our understanding of slow climatic feedbacks, climate state transitions, and abrupt climate changes. &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;However, a&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;ssessing the&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt; quality and reliability of &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;such paleoclimate&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt; simulations &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;is particularly challenging&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt; due to the &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;inherent characteristic differences between model data and the climate reconstructions used to validate them.&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;Here,&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt; we present a&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt; collection &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;of software packages&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt; for &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;inter-model and model-data comparison&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;s&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt; called &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;P&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;alaeo &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;ToolBox (PTBox)&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;. &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;Its first intent is to evaluate transient simulations of &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;the&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt; Pal&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;M&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;od project (deglaciation, glacial inception, MIS3&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;)&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt; &amp;lt;span&amp;gt;using several proxy data syntheses. &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;V&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;arious variables are evaluated&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt; &amp;lt;span&amp;gt;(including&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt; &amp;lt;span&amp;gt;temperature, precipitation, o&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;xygen isotope&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;s&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;vegetation, &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;carbon storage&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;s&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt; and fluxes&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;)&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;,&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt; across a range of timescales &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;(from d&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;ecadal to multi-millenial&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;)&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;. &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;PTBox &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;provid&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;es &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;integrated model-data workflows, from data pre-processing to visualisations, &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;organised into a series of (mostly R) packages. &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;So far, PTBox&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt; includes &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;1) &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;tools for pre-processing simulations and proxy data, &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;2) &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;ensemble and pseudo-proxy methods to bridge the gap between simulations and proxies and &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;to &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;quantify uncertainties, &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;3) &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;spectral methods to analyse timescale-dependent climate variability, and &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;4) &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;newly developed metrics for spatio-temporal model-data comparisons.&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Finally, &amp;lt;span&amp;gt;PTBox is accompanied by a website (http://palmodapp.cloud.dkrz.de/) &amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;with examples on how to use PTBox and interactive visualisations of&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt; the datasets produced in the PalMod project.&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;