Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3595
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3595
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
03 Aug 2026
| 03 Aug 2026
Status: this preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
MioMIP2: Experimental design for Phase 1 & 2 of the Miocene component of the CMIP7/PMIP7 Deep-time Model Intercomparison Project (DeepMIP-Miocene)
Abstract. The Miocene Epoch has emerged as an important paleoclimate model intercomparison target due to its dynamic nature, global warmth, and reconstructed atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Miocene CO2 estimates range from as low as 300–600 ppmv to as high as 800–1100 ppmv. The formalized Miocene Model Intercomparison Project (MioMIP2) aims to address questions about the mechanisms driving the climatic changes and tipping points seen in the geological record and improve confidence in the ability of climate models to predict future climates and constrain climate sensitivity. Through alignment with PlioMIP and DeepMIP-Eocene efforts, a coordinated MioMIP (DeepMIP-Miocene) effort will allow for cross-time-period studies that sample the full range of Shared Socioeconomic Pathway paleo analogues. Building on the MioMIP1 “MIP of opportunity”, the Miocene community has been developing the experimental design for MioMIP2. The MioMIP1 effort was an ensemble of opportunity that leveraged existing Miocene simulations run with different models, boundary conditions, and reference datasets. MioMIP2 will be the first formal Miocene MIP with common boundary conditions and will target the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO; 16.75–14.5 Ma). We present the experimental design for coordinated “CORE” MCO simulations and sensitivity studies. This community effort synthesizes paleogeography, ice sheet, CO2, and vegetation boundary conditions based on the latest available literature and will use geological data from companion proxy synthesis efforts to evaluate the simulations.
How to cite. Burls, N. J., Wright, N. M., Acosta, R. P., Bradshaw, C. D., Gasson, E., Stap, L. B., Ramstein, G., Halberstadt, A. R. W., De Boer, A. M., Akgün, F., Cantrill, D. J., Casas-Gallego, M., Doláková, N., Erdei, B., Farnsworth, A., Feakins, S., Feng, R., Fletcher, T., Fluteau, F., Green, J. A. M., von der Heydt, A. S., Huber, M., Hutchinson, D. K., Ivanov, D., Kayseri-Özer, M. S., Knorr, G., Kováčová, M., Lear, C. H., LeGrande, A. N., Li, S., Liu, X., Lunt, D. J., Meissner, K., Miao, Y., Naik, T. J., Navarro, J. B., Novak, J. B., Ochoa, D., Paxman, G. J. G., Pound, M. J., Rae, J. W. B., Reichgelt, T., Renoult, M., Sangiorgi, F., Sarr, A.-C., Segalla, D., Sepulchre, P., Shevenell, A., Steinig, S., Straume, E., Strömberg, C. A. E., Tabor, C., Utescher, T., Weiffenbach, J. E., Worobiec, E., Zhang, Y., Zhu, F., Zhu, J., Auderset, A., Colleoni, F., Dolan, A., Havranek, R., Holbourn, A., Herold, N., Lee, D., Marschalek, J. W., Mitsunaga, B., Modestou, S., Perez-Angel, L., Saslaw, M., Sosdian, S., Stiles, E., Sun, Y., Tan, N., Zhang, Z., and Zhao, Y.: MioMIP2: Experimental design for Phase 1 & 2 of the Miocene component of the CMIP7/PMIP7 Deep-time Model Intercomparison Project (DeepMIP-Miocene), EGUsphere [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3595, 2026.
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Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences & the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United States
Nicky M. Wright
EarthByte Group, School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
R. Paul Acosta
Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences & the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United States
Catherine D. Bradshaw
The Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, United Kingdom
Edward Gasson
University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4, United Kingdom
Lennert B. Stap
Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
Statistics Netherlands, The Hague, Netherlands
Gilles Ramstein
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE), CEA, CNRS, UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (IPSL), Université Versailles Saint-Quentin, Guyancourt, France
Anna Ruth W. Halberstadt
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
Agatha M. De Boer
Department of Geological Sciences, Bolin Center for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Funda Akgün
Dokuz Eylül University, Department of Geology Engineering, Tınaztepe Campus, Buca-İzmir, Türkiye
David J. Cantrill
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Victoria, Australia
School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Manuel Casas-Gallego
Department of Geodynamics, Stratigraphy and Paleontology, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Nela Doláková
Department of Geological Sciences, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Boglarka Erdei
Botanical Department, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Alex Farnsworth
School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
Sarah Feakins
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Ran Feng
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Connecticut, 40 Storrs, CT, United States
Tamara Fletcher
School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
Frédéric Fluteau
Université Paris Cité, Institut de physique du globe de Paris, CNRS, F-75005 Paris, France
J. A. Mattias Green
School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Menai Bridge, United Kingdom
Anna S. von der Heydt
Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Department of Physics, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Matthew Huber
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States
David K. Hutchinson
Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Dimiter Ivanov
Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
Mine Sezgül Kayseri-Özer
Dokuz Eylül University, Institute of Marine Science and Technology, İzmir, Türkiye
Gregor Knorr
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany
Marianna Kováčová
Department of Geology and Paleontology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University Bratislava, Mlynská dolina, Ilkovičova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Caroline H. Lear
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
Allegra N. LeGrande
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, United States
Shufeng Li
State Key Laboratory of Plant Diversity and Specialty Crops, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Xiaoqing Liu
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States
Daniel J. Lunt
School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
Katrin Meissner
Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Yunfa Miao
Key Laboratory of Ecological Safety and Sustainable Development in Arid Lands, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Trusha J. Naik
Department of Geological Sciences, Bolin Center for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Javier B. Navarro
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany
Joseph B. Novak
Ocean Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, United States
Diana Ochoa
Geology Department, Salamanca University, Salamanca, Spain
Guy J.G. Paxman
Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
Matthew J. Pound
School of Geography and Natural Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
James W. B. Rae
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
Tammo Reichgelt
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Connecticut, 40 Storrs, CT, United States
Martin Renoult
Department of Geological Sciences, Bolin Center for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Francesca Sangiorgi
Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Anta-Clarisse Sarr
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oregon, Eugene, USA; Now at: Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, IRD, INRAE, CEREGE, Aix-en-Provence, France
Diane Segalla
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE), CEA, CNRS, UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Pierre Sepulchre
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE), CEA, CNRS, UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Amelia Shevenell
University of South Florida, College of Marine Science, Saint Petersburg, FL, United States
Sebastian Steinig
School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
Eivind Straume
Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Caroline A. E. Strömberg
Department of Biology & Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
Clay Tabor
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Connecticut, 40 Storrs, CT, United States
Torsten Utescher
Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt/M., Senckenberg Research Station of Quaternary Palaeontology, Weimar, Germany
Research Station of Quaternary Palaeontology, Weimar; Institute for Geosciences, Geological Department, Bonn University, Germany
Julia E. Weiffenbach
Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Department of Physics, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Elżbieta Worobiec
W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland
Yurui Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean & Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, United States
Jiang Zhu
NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, United States
Alexandra Auderset
University of Southampton, School of Ocean and Earth Science, Southampton, United Kingdom
Florence Colleoni
National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics, OGS, Trieste, Italy
Aisling Dolan
School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
Rachel Havranek
Science Research Initiative, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Ann Holbourn
Institute of Geosciences, Christian-Albrechts-University, Germany
deceased
Nicholas Herold
Applied Climate Science Pty Ltd., Adelaide, SA, Australia
Daeun Lee
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
James W. Marschalek
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
Bryce Mitsunaga
Departments of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States
Sevi Modestou
Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle, United Kingdom
Lina Perez-Angel
Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States
Mae Saslaw
The Earth Commons, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, United States
Sinda Sosdian
School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
Elena Stiles
Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena CA, United States
State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Ning Tan
State Key Laboratory Lithospheric and Environmental Coevolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Zhongshi Zhang
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, School of Earth and Space Science, Peking University, Beijing, China
Yan Zhao
State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Short summary
Simulating warm paleoclimates increases our understanding of the mechanisms that drive climatic change and tipping points. The Miocene Epoch, specifically the Miocene Climatic Optimum, has been identified as a particularly valuable past warm climate to simulate, meriting the design of a coordinated Miocene Model Intercomparison Project. Here we synthesize the latest available literature and present the experimental design for coordinated Miocene simulations and sensitivity studies.
Simulating warm paleoclimates increases our understanding of the mechanisms that drive climatic...
This manuscript provides a very solid discussion of the MioMIP2 protocol. It gives a nice explanation of the boundary conditions and a justification for them. The updates are described cleanly and the experiments are laid out in a sensible fashion. I would recommend the three points below are addressed prior to publication, and I've also attached an scan with some solely technical corrections (typos etc).
A) The main point that I would like to raise is that, as written, there is a disconnect between the title and the recommendation in my opinion. I feel that you ought to recommend that those modelling groups with a CMIP7-grade model should post their output onto the Earth System Grid Federation. Perhaps you could also give an experiment name for the CMIP controlled vocabulary: at least for the core experiment. Might I suggest miocene-3x? You might also consider rephrasing L220 to make it explicit that groups can directly use their CMIP6/7 piControl, as it currently reads that they might need to rerun it for Deep-MIP. A brief sentence describing how this fits into wider PMIP and CMIP efforts if undertaken with a CMIP7 model would be appreciated.
B) Section 2 seems too short (esp. compared to Sect 3), and more importantly just states the decision to focus on the MCO, rather than justifies it. Perhaps you could fold this into the literature review (stating that you build upon other work that is all focussed on the MCO).
C) I find the evidence you provide in Fig 1 around the CO2 level to be unhelpful. I've no problem with the CO2 levels chosen for the protocol. But I can't see how they relate to the Miocene CO2 estimates shown in Fig 1. Perhaps adding some horizontal lines would help. But I also do not understand the difference between the solid line in Fig 1 and the (much higher) dots.