The Community Earth System Model (CESM) is a new climate model that will allow scientists to study the climate in more detail. The CESM is one of just a dozen whole-earth models that have been developed over the past 30 years that can simulate Earth’s climate system, including oceans, atmosphere, ice and land cover. This new model has improved physics and expanded biogeochemistry to better represent the real world, and to uncover new insights.
Using the CESM, researchers can now simulate the interaction of marine ecosystems with greenhouse gases; the climatic influence of ozone, dust, and other atmospheric chemicals; the cycling of carbon through the atmosphere, oceans, and land surfaces; and the influence of greenhouse gases on the upper atmosphere.
The CESM builds on the Community Climate System Model, which NCAR scientists and collaborators have regularly updated since first developing it more than a decade ago. The new model enables scientists to gain a broader picture of Earth’s climate system by incorporating more influences. Scientists have begun using this new model for an ambitious set of climate experiments to be featured in the next IPCC assessment reports, scheduled for release during 2013–14.
