SPECS will undertake research and dissemination activities to deliver a new generation of European climate forecast systems, with improved forecast quality and efficient regionalisation tools to produce reliable, local climate information over land at seasonal-to-decadal time scales, and provide an enhanced communication protocol and services to satisfy the climate information needs of a wide range of public and private stakeholders. A core set of common experiments has been defined, to which most forecast systems will contribute. Another set of coordinated experiments, tier 1, includes the experiments that one or more forecast systems are planning to run. A standard seasonal experimental set up will consist of ten-member ensembles, with two start dates per year (first of May and November) over the 1981-2012 period and seven-month forecast length. The standard decadal experimental set up consists in five-member ensembles, starting on the first of November (or some time close to that date) of the years 1960, 1963, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1973, 1975, 1978, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013, with a five-year forecast length. A description of the main experiments, with the minimum contribution in terms of start dates, forecast length and ensemble size follows: 1 - Assessment of the impact of soil-moisture initial conditions (seasonal): contributing EC-Earth, IFS/NEMO (ECMWF), CNRM-CM5 (MeteoF), UM, MPI-ESM (MPG); 2 - Assessment of the impact of sea-ice initialization (interannual); contributing EC-Earth (IC3), IPSL-CM5, CNRM-CM5 (MeteoF), UM, MPI-ESM (MPG) 3 - Assessment of impact of increased horizontal resolution (seasonal and decadal); contributing CNRM-CM5 (CERFACS, decadal; MeteoF, seasonal), EC-Earth (IC3, seasonal; KNMI and SMHI, decadal), MPI-ESM (MPG, seasonal and decadal), IPSL-CM5 (decadal), UM (seasonal and decadal); 4 - Assessment of impact of an improved stratosphere (seasonal and decadal) including interannually-varying ozone; contributing EC-Earth (KNMI seasonal with ozone; SMHI decadal), IFS/NEMO (ECMWF, seasonal), CNRM-CM5 (MeteoF, seasonal), UM (seasonal, decadal); 5 - Assessment of impact of additional start dates (decadal); contributing EC-Earth (KNMI, SMHI), MPI-ESM (MPG), IPSL-CM5. SPECS research has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under SPECS project (grant agreement n° 308378).

Data from the Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia INGV-SXG simulations

Tropospheric ORganic CHemistry Experiment (TORCH) was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Polluted Troposphere Research Programme project (Round 1 - NER/T/S/2002/00145. Duration 2002 - 2005) led by A. Lewis, University of York. TORCH 1 took place in July and August 2003 at Writtle College, near Chelmsford, Essex. This dataset contains ECMWF trajectories

The Quantifying the Amazon Isoprene Budget: Reconciling Top-down versus Bottom-up Emission Estimates project produced a unique high resolution model (GEOS-Chem version v8-03-01 - with modifications) for the Amazon, which simulated isoprene emissions and atmospheric chemistry. Model outputs associated with Barkley et al. publication is available through CEDA-BADC. An evaluation of a nested high-resolution Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS)-Chem chemistry transport model simulation of tropospheric chemistry over tropical South America is presented. The model has been constrained with two isoprene emission inventories: (1) the canopy-scale Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGAN) and (2) a leaf-scale algorithm coupled to the Lund-Potsdam-Jena General Ecosystem Simulator (LPJ-GUESS) dynamic vegetation model, and the model has been run using two different chemical mechanisms that contain alternative treatments of isoprene photo-oxidation. The publication is: Barkley, M. P., P. I. Palmer, L. Ganzeveld , A. Arneth , D. Hagberg , T. Karl , A. Guenther , F. Paulot , P. Wennberg , J. Mao , T. Kurosu , K. Chance , J.-F. Muller, I. De Smedt , M. Van Roozendael , D. Chen , Y. Wang , R. Yantosca, Can a 'state of the art' chemistry transport model really simulate Amazonian tropospheric chemistry?, J. Geophys. Res., 116, D16302, doi:10.1029/2011JD015893, 2011 This is a NERC funded project.

The Exploitation of new data sources, data assimilation and ensemble techniques for storm and flood forecasting Project is a NERC Flood Risk for Extreme Events (FREE) Research Programme project (Round 1 - NE/E002137/1 - Duration January 2007 - April 2010) led by Prof AJ Illingworth, University of Reading. This project investigates possible methods of producing ensemble weather forecasts at high-resolution. These ensembles will be used with raingauge and river flow to improve methods of flood forecasting. The dataset includes radiosonde and wind profiles in England and Wales derived using Doppler radar returns from insects. The radial velocity measurements from insects were converted into VAD profiles by fitting a sinusoid to radial velocities at constant range. All measured profiles have been interpolated to the instrument location. This dataset contains wind profiler measurements.

"Improving our ability to predict rapid changes in the El Nino Southern Oscillation climatic phenomenon" project, which was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) RAPID Climate Change Research Programme project (Round 1 - NER/T/S/2002/00443 - Duration 1 Jan 2004 - 30 Sep 2007) led by Prof Alexander Tudhope of the University of Edinburgh, with co-investigators at the Scottish Universities Environment Research Centre, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and the University of Reading. This dataset collection contains meteorology and ocean model outputs from the FORTE model. The objective was to use a combination of palaeoclimate reconstruction from annually-banded corals and the fully coupled HadCM3 atmosphere-ocean general circulation model to develop an understanding of the controls on variability in the strength and frequency of ENSO, and to improve our ability to predict the likelihood of future rapid changes in this important element of the climate system. To achieve this, we targeted three periods:0-2.5 ka: Representative of near-modern climate forcing; revealing the internal variability in the system.6-9 ka: a period of weak or absent ENSO, and different orbital forcing; a test of the model's ability to capture externally-forced change in ENSO.200-2100 AD: by using the palaeo periods to test and optimise model parameterisation, produce a new, improved, prediction of ENSO variability in a warming world. Rapid Climate Change (RAPID) was a £20 million, six-year (2001-2007) programme for the Natural Environment Research Council. The programme aimed to improve the ability to quantify the probability and magnitude of future rapid change in climate, with a main (but not exclusive) focus on the role of the Atlantic Ocean's Thermohaline Circulation.

"Improving our ability to predict rapid changes in the El Nino Southern Oscillation climatic phenomenon" project, which was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) RAPID Climate Change Research Programme project (Round 1 - NER/T/S/2002/00443 - Duration 1 Jan 2004 - 30 Sep 2007) led by Prof Alexander Tudhope of the University of Edinburgh, with co-investigators at the Scottish Universities Environment Research Centre, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and the University of Reading. This dataset collection contains meteorology and ocean model outputs from the Coupled Hadley-Isopycnic Model Experiment (CHIME). The objective was to use a combination of palaeoclimate reconstruction from annually-banded corals and the fully coupled HadCM3 atmosphere-ocean general circulation model to develop an understanding of the controls on variability in the strength and frequency of ENSO, and to improve our ability to predict the likelihood of future rapid changes in this important element of the climate system. To achieve this, we targeted three periods:0-2.5 ka: Representative of near-modern climate forcing; revealing the internal variability in the system.6-9 ka: a period of weak or absent ENSO, and different orbital forcing; a test of the model's ability to capture externally-forced change in ENSO.200-2100 AD: by using the palaeo periods to test and optimise model parameterisation, produce a new, improved, prediction of ENSO variability in a warming world. Rapid Climate Change (RAPID) was a £20 million, six-year (2001-2007) programme for the Natural Environment Research Council. The programme aimed to improve the ability to quantify the probability and magnitude of future rapid change in climate, with a main (but not exclusive) focus on the role of the Atlantic Ocean's Thermohaline Circulation.

The overall aim of the UK Surface Ocean / Lower Atmosphere Study (UK SOLAS) is to advance understanding of environmentally significant interactions between the atmosphere and ocean, focusing on material exchanges that involve ocean productivity, atmospheric composition and climate. The knowledge obtained will improve the predictability of climate change and give insights into the distribution and fate of persistent pollutants. The dataset contains biological and chemical measurements such as: major nutrients and trace metal concentrations in aerosol and rain samples, chemical analyses of inorganic micro-nutrients, dissolved and particulate trace metal and carbon analyses, dissolved nitrogen and organic phosphate, biological measurements including phytoplankton pigments, bacteria, picoplankton and larger phytoplankton abundance.

COBRA (impact of COmbined iodine and Bromine Release on the Arctic atmosphere) is a UK IPY (International Polar Year) consortium that aims to investigate the release mechanisms of iodine in the Arctic and the potential combined effects of iodine and bromine on its atmosphere. The team measured reactive inorganic halogens (BrO, IO, OIO, I2), O3, Hg, HOx, HCHO, NOx, VOCs and reactive halocarbons from temporary laboratories located on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay, north of Kuujjuarapik, during February-March 2008. Met balloons and O3 sondes were launched daily. COBRA set up an ice camp and flux chamber experiments ~500 m into the bay to directly measure halogen emissions and ozone deposition, and measured physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the sea-ice (and potentially of frost flowers) at different depths. The project is linked with OOTI, which carried out a simultaneous field experiment at Kuujjuarapik.

Single-polar products from the Met Office's Munduff Hill C-band rain radar, Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland. Data include CPAPR (March 2011 to October 2012) and augmented refractivity (December 2012 to June 2014) products, as well as reflectivity and Doppler products from May 2014. The radar is a C-band (5.3 cm wavelength) radar and data are received by the Nimrod system at 5 minute intervals.