Climate/paleoclimate modelling facility

地球气候可以定义为一组相互作用的系统，包括大气、水圈、生物圈、冰冻圈和地圈。这些相互作用是非常复杂和高度非线性的，因此数值气候模式是研究过去和未来气候的重要工具。这导致了中等复杂性的UVic地球系统气候模式（UVic ESCM）的发展，该模式包括了大多数重要的气候系统，同时仍然具有计算效率。这份向研究工具和仪器拨款（RTI）项目提交的提案要求为一个建模设施提供资金，该设施包括4台台式机、2台服务器、1台3.5 TB数据存储设备、1台服务器机架和1台不间断电源。该计算设施将用于改进和利用UVic的ESCM。由于UVic ESCM被世界各地的建模小组使用，模型的开发和评估不仅有利于我自己的研究项目，也有利于国际社会。我的研究旨在更好地了解过去和未来的气候变化。我希望通过这个新设施解决的基本科学问题是：在气候突变期间，陆地生物地球化学气候反馈起什么作用？是什么引发了最后一次冰期循环中同位素古气候记录的突变？这些项目涉及气候模拟和一般地球科学领域的开创性工作。它们旨在提高我们对陆地植被、全球碳循环（包括氮和磷循环）以及海洋环流对过去和现在气候变率/变化的影响的基本认识。这样的理解和预测直接关系到加拿大的国家利益，而这些话题在国内和国际上仍然很大程度上未被探索。

The Earth's climate can be defined as a group of interacting systems including the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, cryosphere and geosphere. These interactions are very complex and highly non-linear and thus numerical climate models provide an essential tool in the study of past and future climates. This has led to the development of the UVic Earth System Climate Model (UVic ESCM) of intermediate complexity, which includes most of the important climate systems while still being computationally efficient.This proposal to the Research Tools and Instruments Grants (RTI) program requests funding for a modelling facility consisting of four desktops, two servers, one 3.5 TB data storage, one server rack and one uninterruptable power supply. The computing facility will be used to improve and utilize the UVic ESCM. As the UVic ESCM is used by modelling groups around the world, model development and evaluation will not only benefit my own research program but also an international community.My research aims for a better understanding of past and future climate changes. The fundamental scientific questions I wish to address with this new facility are:What role do terrestrial biogeochemical climate feedbacks play during periods of abrupt climate change?What triggered the abrupt changes seen in isotopic paleoclimate records during the last glacial cycle?These projects involve pioneering work in both climate modelling and the Earth Sciences field in general. They are directed towards improving our basic understanding of terrestrial vegetation, the global carbon cycle (including the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles) and the effect of ocean circulation on past and present climate variability/change. Such understanding and predictions are of direct national interest to Canada, and these topics remain largely unexplored nationally as well as internationally.