The document Sampling the Physical Ocean in CMIP6 Simulations, written by Griffies, Adcroft, Balaji, Danabasoglu, Durack, Gleckler, Gregory, Krasting, McDougall, Stouffer, and Taylor presents recommendations for sampling physical ocean fields for the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) Coupled Model Intercomparison Project #6 (CMIP6), including its suite of satellite MIPs such as the Ocean Model Intercomparison Project (OMIP). Diagnostics are motivated by presenting salient scientific reasons for their relevance, and present a practical framework for meaningful comparisons across climate models and observational based measurements. It focuses on diagnostics related to physical properties and processes within the simulated ocean, along with associated ocean boundary fluxes. The audience for this document includes the WCRP Working Group for Coupled Modeling (WGCM), the CMIP panel, CLIVAR Scientific Steering Group (SSG), CLIVAR Ocean Model Development Panel (OMDP), scientists contributing model results to CMIP, and scientists analyzing ocean climate simulations.

Version 1.0 has benefitted from input offered from the broader climate science community, to which we give our thanks. Although not perfect by any single perspective, it should represent a suitable compromise that allows for robust, practical, and scientifically valuable diagnostics to be sampled from the CMIP6 ocean models. No doubt further refinements will be incorporated as CMIP6 evolves. It is for this reason that continued comments and suggestions are of great value. Such comments and suggestion should be addressed directly to Stephen Griffies.