The Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) is a set of computer programs that
simulate the
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...
for weather and
climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...
research and for
numerical weather prediction
Numerical weather prediction (NWP) uses mathematical models of the atmosphere and oceans to weather forecasting, predict the weather based on current weather conditions. Though first attempted in the 1920s, it was not until the advent of comput ...
(NWP). Other components include a data analysis and a visualization package.
RAMS was developed in the 1980s at
Colorado State University
Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...
(CSU), spearheaded by
William R. Cotton and
Roger A. Pielke, for
mesoscale meteorological modeling
A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French language, French and Italian language, Italian ult ...
. Subsequent development is primarily done by Robert L. Walko and Craig J. Tremback under the supervision of Cotton and Pielke. It is a comprehensive non-hydrostatic model. It is written primarily in
Fortran with some
C code and it runs best under the
Unix
Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...
operating system.
Version 6 was released in 2009.
ATMET Software and Data
RAMS is the basis for a system simulating the Martian atmosphere
The atmosphere of Mars is the layer of gases surrounding Mars. It is primarily composed of carbon dioxide (95%), molecular nitrogen (2.85%), and argon (2%). It also contains trace levels of water vapor, oxygen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and nob ...
that is named MRAMS.
See also
* Downscaling
References
External links
Colorado State University site
ATMET (Atmospheric, Meteorological, and Environmental Technologies) site
*
RAMS Documentation
Numerical climate and weather models
Physics software
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