What is EERIE?

EERIE is the acronym for the Horizon Europe project entitled European Eddy RIch Earth System Models.

This project, running from January 2023 to December 2026, will reveal and quantify the role of ocean mesoscale processes in shaping the climate trajectory over seasonal to centennial time scales. To this end EERIE will develop a new generation of Earth System Models (ESMs) that are capable of explicitly representing a crucially important, yet unexplored regime of the Earth system – the ocean mesoscale. Leveraging the latest advances in science and technology, EERIE will substantially improve the ability of such ESMs to faithfully represent the centennial-scale evolution of the global climate, especially its variability, extremes and how tipping points may unfold under the influence of the ocean mesoscale.

Model improvements include new dynamical cores, new components (particularly for sea ice), scale-aware parametrisations and the complementary use of Machine Learning (ML). The technological challenge associated with this ambition is very high. EERIE’s goal is to achieve a simulation speed of up to 5 simulated years per day and to make efficient use (reduction in power consumption by 50%) of the pre-exascale supercomputers now available in Europe. The technological solutions that are to be leveraged in EERIE are the use of reduced numerical precision, Graphic Processing Units (GPUs), ML and reduced Input/Output (I/O). Alongside model improvements, EERIE will develop innovative experimental simulation protocols that are suitable for the mesoscale, to be pioneered on behalf of the global climate modelling community, in preparation for the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) cycle.

EERIE will produce useful and usable climate information – for example,
through data viewers and storylines – that will contribute to national and international climate change assessments such as IPCC; it will incorporate model variability and extremes within an Integrated Assessment Model; and it will deliver storyline approaches to the consequences of climate tipping points and disease outbreaks.

Should you want to know more, you may watch our introductory video, read our brochure and our EERIE at a glance factsheet.

Why does the mesoscale matter?

The ocean mesoscale (ranging from around a hundred kilometres at the equator to a few kilometres at high latitudes) is the scale at which crucially important oceanic processes are manifested, for instance ocean eddies (similar to cyclones in the atmosphere) and boundary or frontal currents, such as the Gulf Stream and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

Mesoscale processes transport heat and carbon over very large distances in the ocean, both horizontally and vertically. They regulate the exchanges of energy, moisture and carbon between key climate system components (atmosphere and cryosphere), with the ocean currently acting as a strong buffer for anthropogenic climate change.

Understanding these processes and how they might change in the future is critical for portraying robust global and regional climate impacts, with significant policy implications.