Working Groups

The CESM Working Groups are relatively small teams of scientists that work on individual component models or specific coupling strategies.

Each team takes responsibility for developing and continually improving its component of the CESM consistent with the CESM goal of a fully-coupled model and with the CESM design criteria. They decide their own development priorities and work schedules, consistent with the overall goals of CESM, and subject to oversight by the CESM Scientific Steering Committee (SSC).

Each winter they hold meetings to discuss and present scientific topics related to their components. To learn more about these meetings and register to attend them, visit the CESM Working Group Meeting page.

The working groups are headed by co-chairs, which provide scientific leadership for the Community Earth System Model (CESM) component and/or application working group. To learn more visit the working group co-chairs & terms page.

To learn more about the working groups and their research priorities & projects, visit their individual pages linked below.

Atmosphere Model Working Group (AMWG)

The Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) is the atmosphere model component of the CESM. Information about running CAM as the atmospheric component of the CESM is found in the CESM release.

Biogeochemistry Working Group (BGCWG)

This working group was started at the 3rd Annual CSM Workshop, June 1998, in Breckenridge Colorado

Chemistry Climate Working Group (CCWG)

The goal of the Chemistry-Climate WG is to continue the development of the representation of chemical gas and aerosol species in the CESM and to further our understanding of the interactions between chemistry/aerosol and climate.

Climate Variability & Change Working Group (CVCWG)

CVCWG goals are to understand and quantify contributions of natural and anthropogenically-forced patterns of climate variability and change.

Earth System Prediction Working Group (ESPWG)

The goal of the ESPWG is to advance fundamental understanding of Earth system predictability on time scales ranging from subseasonal to decadal with a multidisciplinary group of researchers.

Land Ice Working Group (LIWG)

LIWG primary objectives are (1) to couple a well validated, fully dynamical ice sheet model to the CESM, and (2) to determine the likely range of decade-to-century-scale sea-level rise associated with the loss of land ice.

Land Model Working Group (LMWG)

The Community Land Model is the land model component of the CESM. Information on the latest version of CLM, including technical descriptions, user guides, and download instructions can be found on the CLM web page.

Ocean Model Working Group (OMWG)

Primary goals include: support of specific science objectives of the CESM and maintaining a state-of-the-art ocean component for the CESM and conducting related, but curiosity-driven, research leading to new contributions to the CESM community.

Paleoclimate Working Group (PWG)

PWG is a consortium of scientists interested in modeling and understanding past Earth climates, allowing a long-term perspective on Earth-system feedbacks.

Polar Climate Working Group (PCWG)

PCWG is a consortium of scientists who are interested in modeling and understanding the climate in the Arctic and the Antarctic, and how polar climate processes interact with and influence climate at lower latitudes.

Software Engineering Working Group (SEWG)

SEWG was formed to examine software engineering issues related to creating and executing CESM model codes, and to recommend and help coordinate software engineering practices that will help the CESM project to achieve its goals.

Whole Atmosphere Working Group (WAWG)

WAWG is a comprehensive numerical model, spanning the range of altitude from the Earth's surface to the thermosphere.