The Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS) is a complex coupled modelling system that brings together the land, ocean, ice, and atmosphere to explore and understand the integrated response of the Earth System to changes in human-induced and natural activities. Developed for Australian conditions, it is recognised as one of the best performing models in the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6).
CMIP6 simulation results inform our understanding of historical and future climates, underpinning the projections of future climate assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). ACCESS simulations will increase our understanding of how the Australian climate will respond to future changes in greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions.
In partnership with ACCESS National Research Infrastructure (NRI), this project will work towards developing the next generation ACCESS Earth System Model (ESM). to provide enhanced performance over the Australian and Indo-Pacific regions. This will improve the representation of Indo-Pacific climate processes that influence Australia’s climate, such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation.
The project will explore a prototype of the next generation ACCESS Earth System Model and possible standard configurations for the next phase of CMIP. We will engage and design ACCESS experiments and provide ACCESS simulation results, including their interpretation and analysis, to decision-makers through the Project Enabling best practice adaptation. The project will also engage with other hub projects to support specific research needs, for example, simulations for regional projections in the Regional climate change guidance for local action project.
This project continues the previous long-term investments to develop and maintain ACCESS as a foundational science capability for the Australian climate science community, as well as extend Australia’s contributions to major international initiatives, including the WCRP and the UK Met Office-led Unified Model partnership.
Want to know more?
Please contact the project leader: Tilo Ziehn, CSIRO