Global climate data is provided by the Meteorological Research Institute Earth System Model Version 2.0 (MRI-ESM2.0), which is part of the globally-recognised Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6).
The climate data is available from 2015 until 2100. In order to address the socioeconomic developments in future climate predictions, the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) were introduced (O'Neill et al., 2014). Five major climate scenarios are differentiated.
The biggest advantage of using the SSPs is the incorporation of both, uncertainties in climate change outcomes and socioeconomic pathways regarding adaptation and mitigation strategies. Socioeconomic and environmental challenges can be displayed on two axes. The x-axis represents challenges pertaining to adaptation and the y-axis depicts challenges to mitigation.
SSPs overview (O'Neill et al., 2014)
The term ”socioeconomic” encompasses demographic, political, social, cultural, institutional, life-style, economic, and technological aspects, as well as human-induced services such as water quality, biodiversity, and ecosystem form and function (O'Neill et al., 2014).
The five Scenarios
In order to query climate data for a certain scenario from the API, the parameter source has to be set to the desired scenario.
The data sets include the parameters temperature, precipitation, wind, radiation and other parameters that are related to or derived from those. The native grid resolution is 1°, but the data is downscaled to a resolution of 90 m.
O’Neill, B.C., Kriegler, E., Riahi, K. et al. A new scenario framework for climate change research: the concept of shared socioeconomic pathways. Climatic Change 122, 387–400 (2014).
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-013-0905-2
