Regional Atmospheric Climate Model 2 (RACMO2), version 2.3p2

In the 1990s the KNMI developed in cooperation with the Danish Meteorological Institute the research model RACMO based on the High Resolution Limited Area Model (HIRLAM) numerical weather prediction model. In 1993 UU/IMAU started to modify the model such that it better represented the extreme conditions over glacier surfaces. This first version of RACMO, RACMO1, combined the dynamical core of the HIRLAM model with ECHAM4 physics. The polar modified version of RACMO1 was mainly applied to the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

The second version, RACMO2, combines the dynamical core of the HIRLAM model with the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Integrated Forecast System (ISF) physics. RACMO versions 2.0 and 2.1 included HIRLAM version 5.0.6 and ISF cycle CY23r4, while version 2.3 includes HIRLAM version 6.3.7 and cycle CY33r1. Due to the rapid increase in computer capacity over the years, these versions of RACMO have not only been applied to the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets, but also at higher resolution to smaller areas such as Dronning Maud Land and Patagonia.

For the RACMO model in general the grids are defined over the equator and then rotated to the area of interest. Grid distance is defined in fraction of degrees, which results in near equidistant grid points as long as the domain is small enough. Note that the domain is thus not on a (polar) stereographic projection plane. In the vertical, the model adopts a system of hybrid sigma levels, which evolve from terrain-following sigma levels close to the surface to pure pressure levels at higher elevation. The actual number of horizontal grid points varies per model run; in most simulations, 40 vertical layers were used.

Since RACMO is a regional model, it needs external information at the lateral boundaries and sea surface. At the lateral boundary zone of the model, the temperature, specific humidity, zonal and meridional wind components, and the surface pressure are relaxed towards the fields of a global model every 6 model hours, as are the sea surface temperature and sea ice concentration. RACMO is not forced at the model top. The interior of the model is not nudged towards observations and allowed to evolve freely.