[cam-users] initial conditions datasets

[Jim McCaa]

On Thursday 09 September 2004 2:13 pm, Cathryn Meyer wrote:
> What exactly is in the initial conditions datasets that are downloaded
> from the CAM3.0 website? 

The initial conditions datasets are snapshots taken on an arbitrary Sep. 1 
from the model running with climatological SSTs.  They should not be 
interpreted as corresponding to any particular year.  The fundamental 
assumption is that CAM is generally used to study climate, in which case the 
initial conditions don't matter.  Note: this is not always the case, e.g. see 
the CAPT project at: http://www-pcmdi.llnl.gov/projects/capt/index.html

> I have been running the model using them, 
> however I am not sure if the model output is realistic or not, since I
> am not sure what the model run was started from.  Are the datasets
> actual data from a specific year ... ?  

No.

> Can other data be substituted to run the model from?

Absolutely.  See the user's guide (or use ncdump -h) for more information on 
the initial/boundary files the model needs to run.

Jim McCaa