Abstract:
[Source: NASA/GISS,
http://aom.giss.nasa.gov/general.html ]
The global coupled Atmosphere-Ocean Model was designed at GISS for
climate predictions at decade to century time scales. Atmospheric
Models at GISS have been under continual development since 1970; the
Ocean and Coupled Models since 1990.
The Atmosphere-Ocean Model is a computer program that simulates the
Earth's climate in three
... dimensions on a gridded domain. The Model
requires two kinds of input, specified parameters and prognostic
variables, and generates two kinds of output, climate diagnostics and
prognostic variables. The specified input parameters include physical
constants, the Earth's orbital parameters, the Earth's atmospheric
constituents, the Earth's topography, the Earth's surface distribution
of ocean, glacial ice, or vegetation, and many others. The time
varying prognostic variables include fluid mass, horizontal velocity,
heat, water vapor, salt, and subsurface mass and energy fields. Each
simulated month, the Model produces an output "D" file that contain
numerous unscaled climate diagnostics. Subsequent programs read these
D files and produce scaled climate variables.
A 120-year control simulation (C023) of the 1995 version of the
Atmosphere-Ocean Model was published in the Canadian journal
"Atmosphere-Ocean". It and a companion 80-year experiment (C024) with
compounded annual 1% CO2 increases were contributed to CMIP (Coupled
Model Intercomparison Project) and to IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change) for their "Second Scientific Assessment of Climate
Change".
For the 1999 version of the Atmosphere-Ocean Model, six 150-year
simulations were run: C089 and C092 are control simulations with
constant 1950 atmospheric composition; C090 and C093 use observed
greenhouse gases from 1950 to 1990 and compounded annual .5% CO2
increases from 1991 to 2099; C091 and C094 use the varying greenhouse
gases plus tropospheric sulfate aerosol changes. Annual .5% CO2
increases after 1990 were chosen because they match the current
radiative forcing caused by all greenhouse gases [Hansen et al., 1998,
"Climate forcings in the Industrial era"].
The model data, code and documentation can be downloaded from:
http://aom.giss.nasa.gov/general.html 
