It is expected that the questions that comprise the CMIP6 model descriptions will need to be occasionally updated. These changes could arise for a variety of reasons
- There are new enumeration options to existing questions
- There are clarifications to the description of existing questions that may suggest a different answer.
- There are entirely new questions
- There questions that have been removed
Such changes will arise from suggestions from the CMIP6 community, so any feedback on the content of the spreadsheets is welcome (at support@es-doc.org).
When ES-DOC makes changes available, a document describing the changes will be available on the ES-DOC website and all ES-DOC liaisons will be notified, with a checklist of items that might need action in their model spreadsheets.
Getting the model spreadsheets updated
In order to get the changes incorporated into the existing spreadsheets, they need to be pushed to the ES-DOC institutional GitHub repository. Once there, ES-DOC will update the spreadsheets (a process which will not lose any existing work), and let the liaison know so that they can pull the files back to their local machine.
The procedure will be
1. Push all model spreadsheets to the ES-DOC institutional GitHub repository
2. Inform ES-DOC (at support@es-doc.org) that spreadsheets are ready for the changes to be applied
3. Wait for confirmation from ES-DOC that the new spreadsheets have been created
4. Pull all of the spreadsheets back to the local repository
It is essential that the spreadsheets are not edited between stages 1. and 4. This is to ensure that the local and remote repositories do get out of sync.
Time constraints
There will be no deadline for carrying out this procedure.
It may be done at any time that fits in with the workflow of the modelling group. This can be a the time of the announcement, or any time thereafter.
For example, if the spreadsheets are being worked on by members of the modelling group, then there is no need to retrieve them earlier than planned – the changes can be implemented later, when the ES-DOC liaison has collated all of the spreadsheets.