chelsa‐cmip6 1.0: a python package to create high resolution bioclimatic variables based on CHELSA ver. 2.1 and CMIP6 data

Data on projected climate conditions for the future is essential for many applications in climate change impact studies. Yet, with the release of the CMIP6, the increasing amount of data poses challenges for users to access and process the data. Here we present the chelsa_cmip6 package to create bioclimatic variables and climatological normals based on CHELSA ver. 2.1 and cloud based CMIP6 data for user defined geographical extents. The package offers simple access to CMIP6 data on cloud servers. It aggregates the CMIP6 data to climatological normals and downscales it from its native resolution to a 30 arcsec grid resolution using the delta change method for user defined future periods. Based on the climatological normals, it creates a set of bioclimatic variables that represent long term climatic means or variability in air temperatures and precipitation. The package offers users a simple way of creating climate change projections for user defined geographical extents and time periods.