New open-access framework to rapidly evaluate next-generation climate models
A new open-access tool that dramatically speeds up the evaluation of climate models has been launched by an international team of scientists. The Rapid Evaluation Framework (REF) allows researchers to compare model outputs with real-world observations, providing immediate insight into model performance.
The Rapid Evaluation Framework (REF) was launched in March at the CMIP 2026 Community Workshop 2026, held in Kyoto, Japan. It was developed by a team of scientists working on the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP), a global collaboration that develops, compares, and improves climate models used in major reports, such as those produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The latest phase of CMIP, CMIP7 (Dunne et al., 2025), is expected to imminently start delivering data using the latest generation of models.
The REF makes it much faster and easier to assess how well these climate models perform by automatically comparing their outputs against real-world observations. Until now, evaluating climate models could take months and require downloading terabytes of data. The REF automates much of the process, running checks across a wide range of measurements and producing results that are available online for anyone to access.
Birgit Hassler, co-lead of the Model Benchmarking Task Team and research scientist at DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, said during the workshop in Kyoto:
It is fantastic to see that the community is so excited about the possibilities the REF offers. We had so many engaging conversations with community members who have ideas already on how to expand the REF and its usefulness.
The REF will initially be used to evaluate results from the CMIP7 Assessment Fast Track, which has been designed to respond to the needs of national and international climate assessments, including the IPCC Seventh Assessment Report. IPCC authors are a key user group for this release of the REF, to facilitate their need to rapidly evaluate and assess the latest scientific advancements. By accelerating model evaluation, the REF could help ensure that the latest climate science is incorporated more quickly into major international assessments, including those of the IPCC.
Three community evaluation and benchmarking packages are included in the CMIP Assessment Fast Track REF (ESMValTool, ILAMB/IOMB and PMP). Development of the open-source REF framework software, led by Climate Resource, and contributions from the Netherlands e-Science Centre has been funded by the European Space Agency. There were US contributions from the established community benchmarking ILAMB/IOMB, PMP and CMEC packages, as well as the work to ensure deployment on ESGF. DLR, National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO), Science and Technology Facilities Research Council and CEDA have all contributed time-in-kind of their staff members on the REF delivery team.
The REF is expected to expand beyond CMIP7 to support a wide range of climate modelling activities under the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). A new governance panel under the WCRP Core Project ESMO is being established to guide its future development.