The Australian Community Climate Earth-System Simulator (ACCESS): Status and future plans
Dr Kamal Puri, ACCESS Science Leader, Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre, Melbourne

Dr Puri received his PhD from the University of Manchester, UK. During a long career in CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre (BMRC) he also had one-year visiting scientist experiences at the United States NCAR, Colorado and GFDL, New Jersey. Dr Puri is head of the BMRC Model Development Group and is the Science Leader for ACCESS (the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator). His personal research interests in climate system modelling include spectral modelling, data assimilation, normal mode initialisation, physical initialisation, development of Bureau's operational hemispheric data assimilation system, research in tropical numerical weather prediction, simulation of monsoon circulation, development of the operational BMRC Tropical Analysis Prediction System (TAPS) and of the new limited area assimilation prediction system (LAPS), and ensemble prediction.

Presentation (3764kb)

The Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS) is a coupled climate and earth system simulator to be developed as a joint initiative of the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO in cooperation with the university community in Australia.

The key objectives of ACCESS are to create models and modelling outcomes that:

• Assist the Bureau of Meteorology in meeting its statutory requirements in providing the best possible meteorological services;
• Assist CSIRO by providing the best possible science for use in analyzing climate impacts and adaptation, and related fields;
• Meet policy needs in natural resource management and related fields for scientific information and analysis;
• Advance research in numerical weather prediction and seasonal forecasting;
• Advance research in climate simulation to enable climate change scenarios over the 50+ year horizon;
• Provide substantive linkages with relevant University research;
• Are world-class, and assist Australia in meeting the long lead-times necessary to contribute appropriate climate projections and scenarios to the Fifth Assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is likely to report around 2012; and,
• Provide a framework for interaction between the Australian scientific community working in Earth system modelling and leading international groups working in the same area.

• Focus on the strategic timeframe (typically 7 years) while recognising that decisions on the tactical timeframe (1 to 3 years) will need to meet immediate client needs and be consistent with the overall ACCESS planning;
• Include a fully coupled carbon-cycle model covering terrestrial, ocean and atmosphere systems (incorporating a dynamic vegetation model);
• Provide eventually the opportunity for incorporation of socio-economic processes;
• Contribute relevant model outputs for those with responsibilities related to the impacts of and adaptation to climate change in Australia. As such model output will need to be at length and timescales appropriate for simulation of the behaviour of the atmospheric, marine, and terrestrial systems adjudged to be vulnerable to climate change;
• Be grounded on well-engineered and realistically achievable software and be supported by high quality IT infrastructure;
• Be flexibly engineered so as to be capable of allowing for fresh and new applications, within the context of a well-defined boundary; and
• Support fulfilling careers for Australian research scientists in related fields.

ACCESS has the potential to become the one of the biggest environmental initiatives in Australia. Significant progress has been made over the past six months. ACCESS will aim to build on this progress as more resources become available in order to meet the timelines for the various applications, and in an attempt to satisfy one of its key objectives, namely to develop a 'world class' modelling system.