ARCMIP: Arctic Regional Climate Model Intercomparison Project

The Arctic Regional Climate Modelling Intercomparison Project (ARCMIP) is being organized under the auspices of the WCRP GEWEX Cloud System Studies Working Group on Polar Clouds and the ACSYS Numerical Experimentation Group. A number of regional modeling groups from the U.S., Canada, and Europe attended the first ARCMIP workshop at the International Arctic Research Center, Fairbanks, Alaska, on September 13-15, 2000.

The following broad questions to be addressed by ARCMIP have been identified. 1. What processes are currently not accounted for (or not well) in Arctic simulations by regional models? What is the appropriate level of complexity of physical process parameterizations? 2. What is the level of uncertainty in current regional climate models of the Arctic, and what does this tell us about the ability of these models to represent natural variability and anthropogenic change? What is the influence of lateral forcing by global climate models in scenarios of future climate? 3. What can we say about the circulation biases experienced in global climate model simulations of the Arctic?

Each of the modeling groups will also focus on a different aspect of the model intercomparison.

This talk will provide an overview of ARCMIP, including the simulation protocols, forcing and evaluation data sets, statistical evaluation methods, and data management. Some preliminary comparison results will be presented.