ECHAM General Circulation Model

The European Center/Hamburg (ECHAM) GCM of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany, has its original roots in global forecast models developed at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). This model has been modified for climate research, and its development continued to the current cycle ECHAM5.

ECHAM is a comprehensive general circulation model of the atmosphere. Depending on the configuration the model resolves the atmosphere up to 10 hPa (ECHAM) for troposheric studies, or up to 0.01 hPa for middle atmosphere studies (MAECHAM).

ECHAM5 is the 5th generation of the ECHAM general circulation model. ECHAM5 is available to the scientific community. The current version is echam5.3. ECHAM5 is described in detail in Roeckner et al. (2003). The precursor versions ECHAM3 and ECHAM4 were described in Roeckner et al. (1992) and Roeckner et al. (1996), respectively.

References:

Roeckner, E., K. Arpe, L. Bengtsson, S. Brinkop, L. Dümenil, M. Esch, E. Kirk, F. Lunkeit, M. Ponater, B. Rockel, R. Sausen, U. Schlese, S. Schubert, and M. Windelband, 1992. Simulation of the present-day climate with the ECHAM model: impact of model physics and resolution. Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Report No. 93, 171 pp.

Roeckner E., K. Arpe, L. Bengtsson, M. Christoph, M. Claussen, L. Dümenil, M. Esch, M. Giorgetta, U. Schlese, and U. Schulzweida. 1996. The atmospheric general circulation model ECHAM4: Model description and simulation of present day climate. Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Report No. 218, Hamburg, 130 pp.

Roeckner, E., G. Bäuml, L. Bonaventura, R. Brokopf, M. Esch, M. Giorgetta, S. Hagemann, I. Kirchner, L. Kornblueh, E. Manzini, A. Rhodin, U. Schlese, U. Schulzweida, and A. Tompkins. 2003. The atmospheric general circulation model ECHAM5. Part 1: model description. Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Report No. 249, Hamburg, 140 pp.