Summary: | The overall objective of the research project CLIMOD (CLImate MODelling) was to contribute to the international research effort leading to an improved understanding of the climate system and to a better assessment of the impact of human activities on the global and regional climates. Two main tools were employed to reach this goal : modelling and data analysis. Four Belgian reaseach teams haved pooled their expertise in this project : ASTR-GCMG (global climate modelling), GI (ice- sheet modelling),ASTR-RCMG (regional climate modelling), and RMI-GCS (climate data). At the beginning of the project, members of the research network CLIMOD had at their disposal a coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model (AOGCM), the first and the only one in Belgium, a regional atmospheric model (called MAR), and a Greenland ice-sheet model (GISM). Each of these complex three-dimensional models was run by a different team in a different location. At the end of the project, a community model, to which each team has contributed a component, is accessible to all in a common computer environment.
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