About the UGAMP Programme

The UK Universities Global Atmospheric Modelling Project was set up in 1987 by the Natural Environment Research Council as a collaborative research programme between a number of different UK Universities and the UK Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. In April 1990, UGAMP changed its acronym slightly to become the UK Universities Global Atmospheric Modelling Programme as a Community Research Project of the NERC's Marine and Atmospheric Science Directorate.

UGAMP's approach is to use a heirarchy of models as research tools for controlled experimentation, for comparison with observational data, and in other ways for the advancement of basic understanding in atmospheric phenomena. It also aims to contribute to the improvement of models as understanding develops. The most sophisticated members of the heirarchy are high-resolution, three-dimensional, state-of-the-art models that attempt to simulate the global atmospheric circulation in as much detail as practicable. Other models lower in the heirarchy are used to focus on some processes in more detail, while leaving out others.

An integral part of the project is to recruit and train tomorrow's researchers. Graduate students and post-doctoral researchers work alongside established and internationally respected scientists engaged in many different aspects of atmospheric modelling.

For more details about UGAMP, visit the UGAMP website.

To provide the necessary infrastructure and support to the UGAMP community, in 1992 NERC set up the Centre for Global Atmospheric Modelling (CGAM) in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, and the Atmospheric Chemistry Modelling Support Unit at the University of Cambridge . The director of CGAM and UGAMP is currently Professor Julia Slingo. Professor John Pyle is the director of the ACMSU.

UGAMP is now a network of excellence in climate research in the UK. The NERC Centre for Atmospheric Sciences (NCAS) is now responsible for funding CGAM and ACMSU.