Abstract:
The Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP) was initiated in order
to coordinate and encourage the systematic study of atmospheric general
circulation models (AGCMs) and to assess their ability to simulate large
changes of climate such as those that occurred in the distant past. Project
goals include identifying common responses of AGCMs to imposed paleoclimate
"boundary conditions,"
... understanding the differences in model responses,
comparing model results with paleoclimate data, and providing AGCM results for
use in helping in the analysis and interpretation of paleoclimate data. PMIP is
initially focusing on the mid-Holocene (6,000 years Before Present) and the
last glacial maximum (21,000 yr BP) because climatic conditions were remarkably
different at those times and because relatively large amounts of paleoclimate
data exist for these periods. The major "forcing" factors are also relatively
well known at these times. Some of the paleoclimate features simulated by
models in previous studies seem consistent with paleoclimatic data, but others
do not. One of the goals of PMIP is to determine which results are
model-dependent. The PMIP experiments are limited to studying the equilibrium
response of the atmosphere (and such surface characteristics as snow cover) to
changes in boundary conditions (e.g., insolation, ice-sheet distribution, CO2
concentration, etc.).
From "Status of the Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP)"
S. Joussaume and K. E. Taylor
Models used are:
bmrc(2): Bureau of Meteorological Research Centre
ccc2.0: Canadian Climate Center
ccm(1,3): NCAR CCM1 and NCAR CCM3
ccsr1: Center for Climate System Research (Japan)
climber: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
cnrm-2: Centre National de Recherches Meteorologiques
csiro: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
echam3: Max-Planck-Institut fur Meteorologie
gen1: Genesis 1 (LLNL)
gen2: Genesis 2 (Penn State)
gfdl: NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
giss-iip: Goddard Institute for Space Studies / NASA
lln_nh_1: Institut d'astronomie et de geophysique G. Lemaitre
lmcelmd(4,5): Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l«Environnement/
Laboratoire de Met?orologie Dynamique
mri2: Meteorological Research Institute (Japan)
msu: Moscow State University
ugamp: The UK Universities' Global Atmospheric Modelling Programme
uiuc11: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ukmo: United Kingdom Meteorological Office
yonu: Yonsei University (Korea) 
