Report 7: AMIP: The Atmospheric Model
Intercomparison Project
Gates, W. Lawrence
December 1992, 18 pp.
The Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP) is an international
effort to determine the systematic climate errors of atmospheric models
under realistic conditions, and calls for the simulation of the climate
of the decade 1979-1988 using the observed monthly-averaged distributions
of sea-surface temperature and sea ice as boundary conditions. Organized
by the Working Group on Numerical Experimentation (WGNE) as a contribution
to the World Climate Research Programme, AMIP involves the international
atmospheric modeling community in a major test and intercomparison of model
performance; in addition to an agreed-to set of monthly-averaged output
variables, each of the participating models will generate a daily history
of state. These data will be stored and made available in standard format
by the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI)
at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Following completion of
the computational phase of AMIP in 1993, emphasis will shift to a series
of diagnostic subprojects, now being planned, for the detailed examination
of model performance and the simulation of specific physical processes
and phenomena. AMIP offers an unprecedented opportunity for the comprehensive
evaluation and validation of current atmospheric models, and is expected
to provide valuable information for model improvement. (pdf
file)
UCRL-MI-123395