The Parallel Ice Sheet Model project provides an open source, fully-parallel, high-resolution ice sheet model. It has these features:
- a hierarchy of available stress balances, including shallow ice and shelf approximations, a hybrid of these, and a (planned) higher-order scheme
- verification and validation tools
- a polythermal, enthalpy-based conservation of energy scheme
- extensible coupling to atmospheric and ocean models
- complete documentation for users and developers
From the software point of view, PISM is a C++ program which
- automatically converts units by using UDUNITS
Development of PISM is supported by NASA's Modeling, Analysis, and Prediction (MAP) program (grant #NNX09AJ38G, 2009–2013; also Cryospheric Sciences program 2002–2008) and by a grant of resources from the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) as part of the Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program. We are based in the Snow, Ice and Permafrost Group at the Geophysical Institute at UAF.
News
PISM stable0.3 is released
PISM version stable0.3 is available. See the stable version page to check out a copy of the source code. Send email to help@pism-docs.org for help with any version of PISM.
Compared to stable0.2, the new version
- uses a polythermal, enthalpy-based energy conservation scheme
- includes improved atmosphere, surface processes and ocean model structure
- puts all model parameters and physical constants in a configuration file which can be changed without re-compiling PISM
- has a better User's Manual
- comes with a command-line option Cheat-Sheet
- has a better HTML PISM Source Code Browser
- supports saving scalar, 2D and 3D diagnostics at given times during the run
- allows climate forcing using spatially-varying “anomalies” (near-surface air temperature and precipitation)
- includes better metadata handling
- can be stopped and restarted without affecting results of a run
- has more software tests (including regression tests)
- has an automatic vertical grid extension mechanism
- performs area and volume calculations using WGS84 datum to correct projection error
- makes the computation of the age of the ice optional, for efficiency
- has easier-to-extend source code
