AMIP - Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project
AMIP is a standard experimental protocol for global atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). It provides a community-based infrastructure in support of climate model diagnosis, validation, intercomparison, documentation and data access.  This framework enables a diverse community of scientists to analyze AGCMs in a systematic fashion, a process which serves to facilitate model improvement.  Virtually the entire international climate modeling community has participated in this project since its inception in 1990.

CMIP - Coupled Model Intercomparison Project
The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) studies output from coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation models that also include interactive sea ice.  These models allow the simulated climate to adjust to changes in climate forcing, such as increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide.  CMIP began in 1995 by collecting output from model "control runs" in which climate forcing is held constant.  Later versions of CMIP have collected output from an idealized scenario of global warming, with atmospheric CO2 increasing at the rate of 1% per year until it doubles at about Year 70.  CMIP output is available for study by approved diagnostic sub-projects.  The WCRP CMIP3 multi-model dataset archived at PCMDI, included realistic scenarios for both past and present climate forcing.  The research based on this dataset has provided much of the new material underlying the IPCC 4th Assessment Report (AR4). The ongoing WCRP CMIP5 experiment will be the bases for the upcoming IPCC AR5 scheduled for 2013.

SMIP - Seasonal Prediction Model Intercomparison Project
The Seasonal Prediction Model Intercomparison Project, developed by the CLIVAR Working Group on Seasonal to Interannual Prediction, is a two-phase experiment to evaluate seasonal predictability using ensembles of simulations with general circulation models. Phase 1, SMIP2, is an examination of one and two season potential predictability. For these experiments observed sea-surface temperatures (SST's) are prescribed as a surface boundary condition. Phase 2, SMIP2/HPF, is an examination of actual predictiability, with the boundary conditions containing no a priori observed information in the seasonal forecast. The SST and sea-ice can be determined from either a two-tiered forecast, or the seasonal forecast may be performed with a coupled ocean-atmosphere model. Participants are welcome to participate in either or both SMIP2 and SMIP2/HFP.

APE - Aqua-Planet Experiment Project
The Aqua-Planet Experiment Project (APE) compares idealised climates simulated by global atmospheric circulation models (AGCMs) which are being used and developed for numerical weather prediction and climate research. Each AGCM is used to simulate the climate on a water covered world using several idealised distributions of sea surface temperature. This simplified environment will focus attention on the distribution and variability of convection in the tropics and of the storm-tracks in mid-latitudes. The experiment aims to provide a benchmark of current model behaviour and, more importantly, to stimulate research to understand the causes of inter-model differences, arising from different subgrid-scale parameterization suites, different dynamical cores, and different methods of coupling the two.

PMIP - Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project
This project is now being hosted by the Laboratorie des Sciences du Climat et l'Environnement (LSCE) and is in its second phase (PMIP 2). The purpose is to study the role of climate feedbacks arising for the different climate subsystems (atmosphere, ocean, land surface, sea ice, and land ice) and evaluate the capability of state-of-the-art climiate models to reproduce climate states that are radically different from those of today. Results from both coupled ocean-atmosphere models and ocean-atmosphere-vegetation models are being considered in PMIP 2, whereas only slab-ocean models coupled to the atmosphere were considered in PMIP 1. PMIP 2 continues to stimulate development and improvement of paleo-environmental data sets. As in PMIP 1, analysis focuses on both model-model and model-data comparisons.

Related Intercomparison Projects