The mid-Pliocene period (3.3 to 3.0 Ma) is known as a warm climate with atmospheric greenhouse gas levels similar to the present. As the climate at this time was in equilibrium with the greenhouse forcing, it is a valuable test case to better understand the long-term response to high levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases. In this study, we use the low resolution version of the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM-L) to simulate the pre-industrial and the mid-Pliocene climate. Comparison of the

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... simulation with observations demonstrates that NorESM-L simulates a realistic pre-industrial climate. The simulated mid-Pliocene global mean surface air temperature is 16.7 • C, which is 3.2 • C warmer than the pre-industrial. The simulated mid-Pliocene global mean sea surface temperature is 19.1 • C, which is 2.0 • C warmer than the pre-industrial. The warming is relatively uniform globally, except for a strong amplification at high latitudes. The pre-industrial and mid-Pliocene experiments with the low resolution version of the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM-L) presented in this paper are a contribution from the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research and the Norwegian Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.