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• Historical experiments which cover the period where modern climate observations exist. These experiments show how the GCMs performs for the past climate and can be used as a reference period for comparison with scenario runs for the future. The period covered is typically 1850-2005.;
• Ensemble of experiments from the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP), which prescribes the oceanic variables for all models and during all period of the experiment. This configuration removes the added complexity of ocean-atmosphere feedbacks in the climate system. The period covered is typically 1950-2005.
• Ensemble of climate projection experiments following the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 2.6, 4.5, 6.0 and 8.5. The RCP scenarios provide different pathways of the future climate forcing. The period covered is typically 2006-2100, some extended RCP experimental data is available from 2100-2300.

In CMIP5, the same experiments were run using different GCMs. In addition, for each model, the same experiment was repeatedly done using slightly different conditions (like initial conditions or different physical parameterisations for instance) producing in that way an ensemble of experiments closely related. Note that CMIP5 GCM data can be also used as lateral boundary conditions for Regional Climate Models (RCMs). RCMs are also available in the CDS (see CORDEX datasets). 

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