PISM is an open-source modelling framework for ice sheets and glaciers jointly developed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
In the 25 or so years from the early days of PISM's development, it has evolved from a serial isothermal ice dynamics model to a parallel, modular framework implementing a hierarchy of stress balance approximations, an enthalpy-based energy conservation model, a mass-conserving basal hydrology model, an intermediate complexity glacial isostatic adjustment component, and extensible coupling to ocean and atmosphere models.
PISM users participated in many community projects and model intercomparisons, producing over 200 peer reviewed publications. Its applications range from projections of contributions from Antarctica and Greenland to sea level rise and papers describing advances in modeling of some key physical processes controlling the behavior of ice sheets to modeling the glaciation of Pavonis Mons, Mars and inferring paleoclimate in south-west Turkey. [full article]
The PISM code is currently available through
Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics and at pism.io .
From HQ
Dear Community,
The summer workshop season is winding down. Hackathons and workshops in June brought together over 100 preominantly early career researchers to continue expanding and improving the community codes ASPECT and Rayleigh and train new users on PyLith. Winding down the year is the Ada Lovelace Workshop in which we are supporting a growing number of U.S. based researchers in mantle and lithopsheric studies in their interactions with the international research community. These events have been effective vehicles in growing research and promoting collaborations.
Attending these events, I find just as striking the breadth of research undertaken by this community that science driven code development has enabled. We plan to showcase this research and explore key community topics in our community-wide meeting planned for August 2025. While it will not duplicate the tour de force from the 2016 meeting (personally I am still exhausted thinking about it), we will explore key topics in supporting the next generation of research and researchers. Share your thoughts with the Organizing Committee on emerging trends or training you would like to see offered.
Lorraine Hwang, Co Director
Governance
Nominations
Nominations are now open for this year's elections - 2 seats are open on the Executive Committee and 3 on the Science Steering Committee.
We thank Brad Aagaard and Dave May for their leadership on the EC and SSC respectively; and EC member Marc Spiegelman and SSC members Peter Driscoll, Harriet Lau, and Emmanuel Njinju (early career) for heir contributions to the community. Email the Nominations Committee your nominations for these key governance positions.
A candidate can be placed on the slate by the Nominating Committee or by nomination by three Member Representatives. [email]
Working Groups
CIG seeks to engage its community and encourage new ideas by seeking members interested in participating as a member of a current working Group or starting a new Focused Working Groups (FWG). New FWG's should address a specific topic and have a clearly defined scope e.g., workshop, white paper, benchmark, etc. A WG should define concrete outcome(s) achievable within a short time frame, < 2 years. Anyone can propose one! We look forward to your ideas in continuing the CIG community's dynamic leadership in the Earth sciences. [apply]Events
CIG Webinars
CIG Monthly Webinars are the second Thursday of the month at 2P PT unless otherwise noted. Look for announcements this Fall for 2024/2025 webinars.
Workshops
2025 CIG Community Meeting
The CIG community meeting will be held the first week of August 2025 in Colorado. Contact the Workshop Committee with your ideas for topics to explore and tutorials you would like to see offered.
See our calendar for details on all events and registration.
Remember to join our forum to receive announcements for these and other 2024-2025 events.The Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics is supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF 2149126.