Isabelle Bey

Center for Climate Systems Modeling (C2SM):
“Towards an improved capability to understand and predict
the Earth’s climate and weather system.”
www.c2sm.ethz.ch
Isabelle Bey
Execu

C2SM overall structure
• A joint venture involving researchers from ETH and partner
ins9tu9ons, including MeteoSwiss, Empa and Agroscope Reckenholz‐
Tänikon Research Sta9on (ART) ‐‐ Established in fall 2008.
• A center structured around a group of Associated Members and Staff,
directed by a Steering CommiMee and run by an Execu9ve Director.
• Encompasses the technical and scien9fic exper9se of more than 200
climate scien9sts through 24 members from ETHZ, MeteoSwiss,
EMPA, ART
‐ Ins9tute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics (D‐UWIS)
‐ Ins9tute for Atmospheric and Climate Science (D‐UWIS)
‐ Ins9tute of Terrestrial Ecosystems (D‐UWIS)
‐ Geological Ins9tute (Department of Earth Sciences, D‐ERDW)
‐ Ins9tute of Plant Science ( Department of Agricultural and Food
Sciences (D‐AGRL)

Main C2SM theme
• Overarching theme: “Mul9‐scale interac9ons within the climate
system”.
The range of scales investigated by C2SM goes from the scale of a tiny water
droplet in the air (micrometer) to the entire globe (thousands of kilometers)
• Addressing the space‐9me characteris9cs of the climate system
including its atmospheric, hydrological, oceanographic and
terrestrial components.

C2SM activities (1/2)
• To maintain, improve, and distribute to the Center’s
community, a hierarchy of state-of-the-art climate and
climate-related models. In particular, the Center seeks to
refine:
- a global climate model (ECHAM5)
- a regional climate model (COSMO & CCLM)
- all the associated modules for, e.g., aerosol,
(biogeo)chemistry, ocean, land surface, and clouds.
• To apply climate models by conducting comprehensive
simulations and diagnostics extending over a wide range
of temporal and spatial scales.
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C2SM activities (2/2)
• To exploit and disseminate key national and international
data sets by providing a repository for the data set and by
developing analysis and data management tools. A special
emphasis will be given to the provision of future climate
scenarios at scales relevant for Switzerland.
• To prepare for and exploit the next generation of highperformance
computers, and thereby continue to
contribute at the highest level to climate system science.
• To foster the collaboration between research groups and
learn from “clients” that will exploit the Center's services.
• To organize scientific workshops and outreach activities
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People at C2SM
• An overall budget of ~2 MCHF for the next 3 years (from ETH‐
Founda9on, ETH, MeteoSwiss, Empa, ART)
• 4 PhD students funded (or partly funded by C2SM) e.g.:
‐ Climate stabiliza9on: role of chemistry‐aerosol‐cloud interac9ons
‐ Towards kilometer‐scale climate modeling
• 3 Scien9fic programmers
‐ Global Climate Modeling (GCM) – TBD
‐ Regional Climate Modeling (RCM) – TBD
‐ Analysis of climate datasets (ACD) – Thierry Cor9

STEERING COMMITTEE
Prof. Christoph Schär (C2SM Chair, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH)
Dr. Christof Appenzeller (Climate Services, MeteoSwiss)
Dr. Brigitte Buchmann (Laboratory for Air Pollution & Environmental Technology, Empa)
Prof. Nicolas Gruber (C2SM Co-Chair, Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH)
Prof. Gerald Haug (Geological Institute, ETH)
Prof. Ulrike Lohmann (Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH)
ASSOCIATED MEMBERS
Prof. Heinz Blatter, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH
Prof. Stefan Brönnimann, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH
Dr. Dominik Brunner, Laboratory for Air Pollution & Environmental Technology, Empa
Prof. Nina Buchmann, Institute of Plant Science, ETH
Prof. Harald Bugmann, Institut of Terretrail Ecosystems, ETH
Dr. Mischa Croci-Maspoli, Climate Services, MeteoSwiss
Prof. Andreas Fischlin, Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich
Dr. Juerg Fuhrer, Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon Research Station (ART)
Prof. Martin Funk, Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology, ETH
Prof. Reto Knutti, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH
Dr. Mark Liniger, Climate Services, MeteoSwiss
Prof. Ulrike Lohmann, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH
Prof. Thomas Peter, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH
Dr. Mathias Rotach, Bio- and Environmental Meteorology, MeteoSwiss
Prof. Sonia Seneviratne, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH
Prof. Johannes Staehelin, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH
Dr. Philippe Steiner, Modeling group, MeteoSwiss
Prof. Helmi Weissert, Geological Institute, ETH
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