CAM3.0 Community Atmosphere Model (CAM)
Introduction
The Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) is the latest in a series of global atmosphere models developed at NCAR for the weather and climate research communities. CAM also serves as the atmospheric component of the Community Climate System Model (CCSM).
The information on this page deals specifically with running CAM as a standalone model. Information about running CAM as the atmospheric component of the CCSM is found in the CCSM release.
What's New?
- 14 April 2005 -- Release Announcement. CAM-3.1 is is mainly a software engineering release. It reproduces the CAM-3.0 climate in configurations for which control simulations have been provided. The main reason for this release is to provide parameterization developers with code that contains updated physics interfaces in the context of a model with a validated climate. However due to a severe staffing shortage, we are not able to provide updated documentation with this release. See the release notes for details. [release notes]
- 27 September 2004 -- Release Announcement. CAM-3.0.p1 is the first patched version of CAM-3.0 which includes minor bug fixes and portability enhancements. Simulations produced by this release will be bit for bit identical to simulations produced using CAM-3.0 in all configurations for which control simulations have been provided. See the release notes for details. [release notes]
- News Archive
Getting Started
Downloads are available for all the scripts, source code and input datasets needed to build and run the standalone version of CAM. This includes the source code for the land model and slab ocean model that may be used in conjunction with standalone CAM. In addition, a diagnostics package using NCL scripts is available to process model output.
There is a single download page for both the current and older versions of CAM. You will need to agree to the CAM distribution license to access this page.
- CAM 3.0 license and distribution information
- Download Page for source and input datasets
- AMWG CAM diagnostics package
- Single Column Model (SCAM) -- SCAM is now an integral part of CAM, and is included with the main model distribution.
Port Validation
Once you've gotten CAM to run the next step is to validate that it's running correctly! [port validation procedure]
CESM Project
The Community Earth System Model (CESM) is a fully-coupled, global climate model that provides state-of-the-art computer simulations of the Earth's past, present, and future climate states.
CESM is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Administration of the CESM is maintained by the Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory (CGD) at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
Documentation
- CAM 3.0 Users Guide
[html] [pdf] [ps] - Scientific Description of CAM 3.0 [html] [pdf] [ps]
- CAM 3.0 Source Code [html]
- Single Column Model (SCAM)
- Documentation for older releases [CAM 2.0] [CCM3]
Detailed Design
Control Simulations
- CAM 3.0 [simulations]
- Simulations using older releases [CAM 2.0] [CAM 2.0.1] [CCM3]