? Atmosphere - Ocean General Circulation Models

Global general circulation models (GCMs) are the most advanced tools currently available for simulating the response of the climate system to increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations under IPCC SRES Scenarios. A GCM is 3-dimensional simulation of the general circulation of the atmosphere and ocean, including representations of the land surface and snow and ice, derived from fundamental physical laws (such as Newton’s laws of motion). A coupled AOGCM typically has a horizontal resolution of between 250 and 600 km, 10 to 20 vertical layers in the atmosphere and sometimes as many as 30 layers in the oceans.