Research in the Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System addresses the following themes:

1. Earth System Modeling : Developing and improving Earth System Models (ESMs), numerical models which simulate the climate and earth system, and allow prediction of the future evolution of this system. These models include the dynamical, physical, chemical and biological components of the atmosphere-ocean-land system and the coupling between them.

2. Seamless Prediction Across Time and Space Scales: Applying the ESMs to predictions on time-scales from days to centuries, and over spatial scales from those of extreme events to global scales, making use of the same flexible code-base. We focus on two different aspects of prediction across time and space scales, the very high-resolution modeling necessary to resolve extreme weather phenomena, and the predictability of different weather and climate phenomena.

3. Earth System Science: Analysis and Applications: Using Earth System Models to understand the impacts of environmental variations and changes on pressing problems of relevance to society, including marine ecosystems, weather extremes, drought and air quality.