Welcome
A major enterprise conducted at the international level, and specifically in Europe (Max Planck Society in Germany, Hadley Centre in the UK, Institut Pierre Simon Laplace in France), in the US (NSF/NCAR, NASA, DOE, NOAA) and in Japan (Frontier Program), is the development of complex Earth System Models (ESM). Such models integrate our knowledge regarding the atmosphere, the ocean, the cryosphere and the biosphere, and account for the coupling between physical and biogeochemical processes in these components of the Earth System (Figure 1). ESMs are needed to understand large climate variations of the past and to predict future climate changes. International programs, including the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP), coordinate Earth System Modeling initiatives through their WFCM and GAIM projects, respectively.
- Figure 1. Bretherton diagram of the Earth system showing the different spheres and coupling processes to be described in an Earth system model.
The Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg has developed global and regional climate models (atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere). Models describing biophysical and biogeochemical processes are being developed at the Max Planck Institute in Jena. Models focusing on tropospheric and stratospheric photochemistry and aerosols and transport are developed and used at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz and at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact has developed a spectrum of Earth System models at various levels of complexity, and accounts for the socioeconomic aspects of importance for the fate of the Earth System. These different institutes have decided to join efforts and work together with the community towards new scientific goals including modeling of the Earth system. For these reasons they initiate COSMOS, a new project for community Earth system models.
COSMOS is intended
- to foster development and evaluation of stateof-the-art climate and Earth system models,
- to facilitate focused model inter-comparison inorder to assess and improve these models,
- to encourage exchanges of software and model results,
- to adhere to the principles of Open Access,
- to strive, as a European based network, for international cooperation, and
- to help to establish the necessary computational resources.
The COSMOS board has put together planning on the COSMOS network in a COSMOS network plan available for your use here.
Hamburg, April 14 2008