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CMIP7 Participation Guidance for Modellers

1. Requirements & Expectations

2. Experiment Design

3. Forcing data sets

4. Model output fields

5. Model output requirements

6. Software for preparing/checking output

The ESGF Quality Control (QC) Framework is a new unified solution designed to validate and ensure the integrity of climate model outputs intended for publication on the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF).
Historically, QC in ESGF has relied on a patchwork of tools (PrePARE, QA-DKRZ, nctime, and others) each covering different aspects of metadata and data checks. While effective, this fragmented approach introduced redundancy, maintenance challenges, and reduced transparency in QC workflows.

The goal of this framework is to provide a cohesive, extensible, and transparent system that consolidates key checks, covers at least the minimum requirements for ESGF publication, and produces standardized reporting.

⚠️ We’re releasing an early version of this ESGF QC Framework. This release is the result of ongoing development and while not final, it aims to give data managers and advanced users an opportunity to explore the tool and adapt their workflows in anticipation of CMIP7. This early release is not intended for general use. It is primarily targeted at data providers responsible for the pre-publication QC of CMIP data on ESGF.

🚧 Important Caveats

  • Scope is limited:
  • Support only the subset of CMIP6 variables provided to the Copernicus Climate Data Store

  • CMIP7 is not yet supported due to pending updates to the Controlled Vocabulary (CV)

  • Development in progress:

  • The framework may still contain minor bugs

  • QC results may change in future releases and should not be treated as final .

  • Not yet validated:

  • This version is for experimentation, not for compliance reporting.

🛠 Development Approach

This framework was developed through a community-driven, iterative process:

  • Forked from the IOOS Compliance Checker for its modular architecture
  • Feature branches reviewed and merged after unit testing
  • Public GitHub repository with issue tracking and a contribution guide
  • Development progress tracked via a shared, public QC checklist table

📦 How to Get Started

  • Installation instructions and basic usage are available here: 📘 https://esgf.github.io/esgf-qc/
  • GitHub release: 🔗 https://github.com/ESGF/esgf-qc/tree/v0.1-beta

⚙️ Configuration, Usage & Reporting

The framework can run specific or full QC suites against your NetCDF files. The framework was designed with a clear separation between definition and logic, ensuring that QC rules remain modular and easy to maintain.

The configuration enables simple versioning and sharing of rule sets, while allowing users to quickly copy and customize configurations—for example, by adjusting the list of checks or their severity levels to match a specific project context through a human-readable TOML files that control: - Which checks are run - Their severity - 🚫 MANDATORY: Must pass for file/dataset to be valid. - ⚠️ WARNING: Does not block ingestion or impact critical downstream processes, but highlights issues that should be corrected from a user perspective to ensure data quality and usability. - ℹ️ OPTIONAL: Informational checks with no impact on validity - Expected values or constraints where applicable

⚠️ In this beta version, the variable registry is not yet queried. Variable information from CV relies on a manual mapping defined in the configuration file. To be automated via esgvoc in future releases.

Usage is built on the IOOS Compliance Checker, maintaining workflow flexibility for modeling groups that already operate their own QA/QC pipelines. It generates atomic log files per run (at both file and dataset levels) and supports seamless parallel execution, enabling straightforward integration with batch schedulers and large-scale production workflows. 

esgqc --test=wcrp_cmip6:1.0 /path/to/data/file.nc

The reporting system inherits the IOOS logic, combining output filtering, severity-based scoring, and granular reports suitable for both operational monitoring and expert review. Results can be easily mapped to standard logging levels (info, warning, critical), facilitating integration with existing QA dashboards. Future releases will extend these capabilities with consolidated dataset-level reports for a clearer overview of publication readiness.

💡 Why Now?

This early release aims to:

  • Help data centres and modeling groups prepare for CMIP7 data workflows.
  • Gather feedback on tool design, performance, and usability.
  • Build alignment with emerging vocabulary and metadata conventions.

🗣️ How to Contribute

If you encounter issues or have suggestions, please open a GitHub issue on the project repository:
👉 https://github.com/ESGF/esgf-qc/issues

7. Archiving/publishing output

8. Documentation Process

9. CMIP7 organisation and governance