ARC-MIP

An international intercomparison of 5 regional model simulations in the Arctic conducted using a common forcing data set. The Arctic Regional Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ARCMIP) focused on the SHEBA year. The rationale for selecting this period was that high quality data are available from SHEBA, the ARM Barrow site, aircraft observations and several satellite remote sensing. In addition, extensive data are available from the Mackenzie GEWEX Study (MAGS), a series of large-scale hydrological and related atmospheric and land-atmosphere studies to be conducted within the Mackenzie Basin in Canada. Each of the modeling groups will focus on a different aspect of the model intercomparison, but there are some broader goals which can be addressed by this project including better understanding of processes and process parameterizations, model uncertainty and global climate model circulation simulations.