CCSM DATA MANGEMENT POLICY

1. CCSM DATA MANGEMENT POLICY • The Community Climate System Model (CCSM) Data Management Policy documents the procedures for the management of model data produced by the CCSM project. • These data policies are the agreed-upon approaches, standards and conventions that coordinate the production and post-processing of CCSM data across the CCSM working groups. • The overall goal of CCSM data management is to provide the best possible access and ease-of-use of high-quality CCSM data to diverse users within the constraints of available resources.

2. Key Elements • Definition of the Categories of CCSM data Sets. • Definition of ownership rights and responsibilities for CCSM data sets. • The CCSM data distribution policy governing the timing of CCSM data release. • Stewardship of CCSM data. • CCSM Data standards. • CCSM Metadata convention. • Conventions for labeling CCSM model runs • Description of data quality assurance procedures • Enabling fast and easy access to CCSM data • Registering and auditing the characteristics of CCSM data users • Coordination of the distributed CCSM data archives across NSF, Department of Energy (DOE), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) data centers • Policy for distribution to non-NSF entities • Long-term CCSM Data Management goals and plans. • Policies for enforcement and changes to these policies

3. 1. Definition of the Categories of CCSM data Sets. • CCSM Control Runs • CCSM Experimental Simulations • CCSM Validation Runs • CCSM Testing Runs

4. 2. Definition of ownership rights and responsibilities for CCSM data sets. • Dataset owners control access to the data • Dataset owners are responsible for data archival and maintenance • CCSM Control Runs: SSC • CCSM Experimental Simulations: PI • CCSM Validation Runs : PI • CCSM Testing Runs : PI

5. 3. CCSM Data Release Timeline • The intellectual investment and time committed to the design and execution of CCSM Experimental Simulation entitles the PIs to the first benefits to be obtained from the resulting data set. • Publication of descriptive or interpretive results derived immediately and directly from the Experimental Simulation data is the privilege and responsibility of the PIs who perform the simulation. • However, to further CCSM science objectives, CCSM PIs are encouraged to share their data with their colleagues prior to the release deadlines. • Once the release deadlines for a CCSM dataset are hit, the datasets move into the public domain.

6. 3. CCSM Data Release Timeline • Public, Published, or Protected. • All Protected data sets shall be available to members of any CCSM Working Group no later than six (6) months following the conclusion of the Experimental Simulation. Any scientist wishing to make use of a Protected data set before that date should communicate directly with the PIs who performed the simulation about access to the data. In this circumstance, it is anticipated that the PIs will be co-authors of any published results, if they wish. • All Protected data sets shall become Published as soon as a scientific paper on the results has been submitted by the PIs who originated the model run or one (1) year after the date of creation, whichever comes sooner. • All Control data sets are categorized as Public once the control run has been validated by the SSC chairman. All Experimental Simulations data sets are initially Protected. Data sets will evolve from Protected to Published or Public according to the data release policy. All Validation/test data sets are Protected and remain so

7. 4. Stewardship of CCSM data. • Data from CCSM Control and CCSM Experimental Simulations Runs that are Public are owned by the CCSM Project Office and will be retained for a period of 10 years. • Retention periods for data from CCSM Validation Runs and Published data sets are left to the discretion of the PIs and the working groups. • Should storage resources become an issue, the SSC reserves the right to intervene.

8. 5.CCSM Data Format Standards • All (input, output, post-proc) data is NetCDF 6. CCSM Metadata Convention • All data is CF compliant 7. CCSM Case/File Name Convention • Maintained by CSEG, see web document 8. Data Quality Assurance Procedures • Responsibility of PI

9. 9. Online Access to CCSM Data • CDP/ESG 10. Auditing CCSM data users • Data will be collected about our users 11. Coordination of Data Repositories • Data to be stored/distributed at the creation site (not necessarily at NCAR) 12. Distribution to non-NSF Entities • Yes, but on a cost-recovery basis

10. 13. Long-term plans and goals • Under construction 14. Changes to these policies • This is a living document owned by the SSC, but future changes requiring resources won’t be retroactive.