The IPCC Interactive Atlas DataLab: online reusability for regional climate change assessment

Abstract

The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the IPCC highlights the regionally varying impacts of climate change on both mean and extreme conditions, with significant socio-economic impacts. A key innovation of AR6 is the Interactive Atlas, which provides spatial and temporal analysis of over 20 Climatic Impact-Drivers (CIDs), integrating global and regional projection datasets from the CMIP and CORDEX model intercomparison projects. The Interactive Atlas allows users to explore, compare and download products relevant to regional climate change risk assessment, while adhering to FAIR principles to ensure data accessibility and reusability. This paper describes additional work undertaken to further support these principles, acknowledging the challenges of processing large-scale datasets. We present a cloud-enabled data laboratory-DataLab- developed using R and Python frameworks for advanced analysis and visualization. The DataLab seamlessly integrates the gridded dataset underpinning the Interactive Atlas with computational resources, combining traditional remote data access services and modern cloudbased solutions to balance cost-effectiveness with technological advances. This comprehensive resource supports regional climate change assessment and could be used to inform national adaptation plans and strengthen climate change research and policy development.