Global Modeling

MIT’s Climate Modeling Initiative

Global ocean modeling at MIT encompasses algorithmic, computational, physical, biogeochemical, and technological innovations, drawing together elements of computational fluid dynamics, statistics, meteorology, oceanography, and computer science. These efforts occur under the umbrella of the Climate Modeling Initiative (CMI), a collaboration among MIT scientists to develop a modeling infrastructure for the study of Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, and climate.

The goal is to develop an approach that emphasizes modeling hierarchies, ranging from the simple to the complex, based on a common set of modeling tools. MIT researchers are keenly interested in the interplay between models, algorithms, and code and its mapping to computers. Ultimately, the challenge is to design highly scalable, flexible, and easy-to-use models that address key questions in earth and planetary science.

The MITgcm

The main development thrust of CMI is the MIT General Circulation Model (MITgcm). Over many years, researchers in CMI have extended MITgcm to embrace an increasingly wide range of modeling challenges in atmospheres, oceans, the cryosphere, biogeochemical cycles, ocean ecology, and the interaction of these processes.