The main purpose of this research unit is the study of the Earth, as a system of integrated physical and biological components, and of its climate.
The development and upgrade of the components of the earth system model (ESM) and the study and understanding of the dynamics of climate in the different model components and in their integrated system (CMCC-ESM) are explicit objectives of the unit. A specific line of development is dedicated to the ocean biogeochemistry model (BFM) and its applications at both global and regional scale. Other specific tasks are dedicated to the atmospheric model component (CAM) with the production of high-resolution AMIP-type experiments (i.e. to be used as forcing for global and regional oceanic re-analysis) and the implementation of a hierarchy of atmospheric model’s parameterizations at increasing complexity.
The unit integrates into the ESM all the different models components, also coming from other ODA research units (i.e. NEMO, sea-ice model) and/or other CMCC divisions (i.e. land and vegetation components), evaluates its performance and produces long-term simulations following the CMIP6 protocol for studies of the Earth’s system climate and its changes, including analysis of the global hydrological cycle and of the main global teleconnections.
All the unit’s activities are tightly linked with other CMCC research units.