CNRM

The CNRM-CM3 global coupled system is the third version of the ocean-atmosphere model initially developed at CERFACS (Toulouse, France), then regularlarly updated at Center National Weather Research (CNRM, METEO-FRANCE, Toulouse).
This model consisted initially of ARPEGE-Climat 2 AGCM (CNRM, Déqué et al., 1994; Déqué and Piedelievre, 1995, Déqué et al., 1998; Gibelin and Déqué, 2003) and OPA7 OGCM (LODyC, CNRS-IPSL, Paris).
These components were updated respectively to ARPEGE-Climat 3 and OPA8.
CNRM-CM3 also now includes a parameterization of the homogeneous and heterogeneous chemistry of ozone (Cariolle et al., 1990), a sea ice model, GELATO2 (Salas-Mélia, 2002), and TRIP river routing from Tokyo University (Oki and Sud, 1998; Oki et al., 1999).
ARPEGE-Climat 3 is a spectral model (truncation T63, 128x64, about 2.8° resolution, and 45 levels), OPA8 (31 levels) and GELATO2 are both grid point models and share the same mesh of 182x152 points.
It corresponds to a resolution of about 2° in longitude, the latitudinal resolution varying from 0.5° near the equator to roughly 2° in polar regions.
The couplings between the different models are managed by OASIS2.2 (CERFACS, Terray et al., 1998) coupler.