Welcome to CGD

 

Earth's Climate System

The primary mission of CGD is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the Earth's climate system. CGD scientists represent this understanding in models of the coupled system and apply these models to key scientific and societal questions regarding climate change.

CGD's main modeling projects are the Community Climate System Model, or CCSM, and the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model, or WACCM. Both CCSM and WACCM are freely available to the worldwide scientific community. CCSM is a coupled model combining representations of the atmosphere, ocean, land, and sea ice. CCSM has been widely used to study the evolution of the Earth's past, present, and future. WACCM simulates the integrated effects of dynamics, chemistry, and solar variability in the stratosphere and upper atmosphere. Simulations from WACCM are now being used in international assessments of the development and recovery of the ozone hole over Antarctica. Scientists in CGD have also developed the Model for Atmospheric Transport and Chemistry (MATCH), the Parallel Climate Model (PCM), and the Model for the Assessment of Greenhouse-gas Induced Climate Change (MAGICC). Simulations from CCSM, PCM, and MAGICC are being analyzed as part of the current international assessment of global warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).