Plain Language Summary

The Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) participates for the first time with a global climate model in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6). The results of CMIP6 and previous model comparison projects feed into the next assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC assessment reports include information on past and expected climate change in the future and is written for policy- and decision-makers as well as for the general public. The main characteristics of the AWI climate model are described and compared to models from previous intercomparison projects. The projected global warming in AWI-CM is similar to the average warming predicted by climate models in the previous intercomparison project. However, the Arctic sea ice extent declines faster than typical previous estimates. Areas that are wet in present-day climate become wetter, and areas that are dry in present-day climate become drier in the future - consistent with previous climate model simulations. The ocean currents remain rather stable in the AWI climate projections, which leads to a continued warm Gulf stream and therefore an only slightly reduced warming of the North Atlantic and parts of Europe compared to other mid-latitude regions.