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Published June 20, 2024 | Version Published
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Hector V3.2.0: functionality and performance of a reduced-complexity climate model

Creators

  • 1. Joint Global Change Research Institute
  • 2. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 3. ROR icon Environmental Protection Agency
  • 4. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center

Abstract

Hector is an open-source reduced-complexity climate–carbon cycle model that models critical Earth system processes on a global and annual basis. Here, we present an updated version of the model, Hector V3.2.0 (hereafter Hector V3), and document its new features, implementation of new science, and performance. Significant new features include permafrost thaw, a reworked energy balance submodel, and updated parameterizations throughout. Hector V3 results are in good general agreement with historical observations of atmospheric CO2 concentrations and global mean surface temperature, and the future temperature projections from Hector V3 are consistent with more complex Earth system model output data from the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. We show that Hector V3 is a flexible, performant, robust, and fully open-source simulator of global climate changes. We also note its limitations and discuss future areas for improvement and research with respect to the model's scientific, stakeholder, and educational priorities.

Copyright and License

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science as part of the MultiSector Dynamics, Earth and Environmental System Modeling Program. The authors would also like to acknowledge the EPA project (grant no. DW-089-92459801-8) for contributing to the radiative forcing updates included in Hector v3. The authors would also like to acknowledge Robert Link and Sven Willner for their contributions to Hector and their work on RHector and pyhector, respectively.

Funding

This research has been supported by the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the MultiSector Dynamics, Earth and Environmental System Modeling Program. The EPA project (grant no. DW-089-92459801-8) supported the radiative-forcing updates.

Data Availability

Hector V3.2.0 was used to generate the Hector results analyzed and the figures included in the main text and in the Supplement. This version of Hector is available at https://github.com/JGCRI/hector (last access: 29 May 2024) via the V3.2.0 release and is archived at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10698028 (Dorheim et al., 2024); this includes all the initialization, emission, and concentration files. All of the code and data used to calibrate Hector, perform all model runs, and produce data visualizations are available at https://github.com/JGCRI/Dorheim_etal_2024_GMD (last access: 29 May 2024), and the “GMD3” release associated with this iteration of the paper is archived at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10698925 (Dorheim, 2024). The code used to process the CMIP6 ESM data used in this manuscript is available at https://github.com/JGCRI/hector_cmip6data and archived on Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7304553 (Pressburger and Dorheim, 2022).

Supplemental Material

The supplement related to this article is available online at: https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4855-2024-supplement.

Additional Information

This paper was edited by Marko Scholze and reviewed by Benjamin Sanderson and three anonymous referees.

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Additional details

Related works

Is new version of
Discussion Paper: 10.5194/egusphere-2023-1477 (DOI)
Is supplemented by
Supplemental Material: 10.5194/gmd-17-4855-2024-supplement (DOI)

Funding

United States Department of Energy
Environmental Protection Agency
DW-089-92459801-8

Dates

Accepted
2024-04-12

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Caltech groups
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)
Publication Status
Published