Broken Links on PCMDI.LLNL.gov – Global Climate Change Models

Karl,

Here are some notes on broken links and bad practices.  I put notes on my search for climate models.  I do these rough searches to get started on a complete review of a topic group on the Internet.  Picking a hard enough problem at global scale is the only way to stay organized and keep all the issues and alternatives in mind.

I was visiting https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/CMIP6/Guide/dataUsers.html and tried the link to Computer hardware performance with link https://es-doc.org/cmip6-performance.  Broken.

At https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/index.html is says, “Please report any missing content”. and the “Report Issue” goes to GitHub.io which is not user friendly.  Just put a form.  From the sparce content at Github.io, it does not look used. Generally Github is NOT reliable issue handling system, too diffuse and too many single points of failure.

Your “About” pulldown has Overview, Staff, Location.  There should be a consistent “contact us” on every one of your pages.  I can suggest efficient ways to do that.

site:pcmdi.llnl.gov shows 2,660 entry points on Google just now.

EVERY page should have a full title, not https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/index.html “Home” but “Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (LLNL PCMDI)”

I am looking for the source code of the models.  I know your group is only looking at a piece of the whole, but every node in the “global climate” modeling network should have complete context information to never leave anyone without a map to know where they are in the global model space.

As it is now, every page that mentions “global climate change” or “climate models” is designed, maintained and managed independently.  No uniform practices, much much duplication.  No two pages using similar styles, navigation, components, much duplication.  Every person trying to work on this topic, and every new person (there are about 2 Billion first time learners in the world now) has to sort through this mess on the Internet.  Adding new pages that no one can find is not the answer.

“global climate change” – 20.4 Million entry points

“climate models” – 3.3 Million entry points

“climate models” “CMIP6” – 127,000 entry points

“climate models” “CMIP6” “source code” – 9,440 entry points

“CMIP6 models” – 61,400 entry points

site:gov “CMIP6 models” – 2,080 entry points

site:gov “CMIP6” “source code” – 1.390 entry points

Richard Collins, Director, The Internet Foundation

Ref: Feb 2020, Implementation of U.K. Earth System Models for CMIP6 at https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2019MS001946

Ref: Current status on the need for improved accessibility to climate models code at https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/14/923/2021/

Ref: https://www.carbonbrief.org/cmip6-the-next-generation-of-climate-models-explained – considered outsiders?

Ref: ModelE Climate Simulations at https://data.giss.nasa.gov/modelE/

Note: Using Github, Gitlab, and many different methods and languages.

site:github.com “CMIP6” – 2,470 entry points, no apparent coordination, no standards other than average GitHub

site:github.com “global climate” – 2,130 miscellaneous groups

site:github.com “Climate Model” “intercomparison”

https://github.com/PCMDI – Short names for projects, no coordinated overview.  No linkages to related projects.