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LMDZ: The LMD General Circulation Model
LMDZ is a general circulation model (or global climate model) developped since the 70s at the "Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique", which includes various variants for the Earth and other planets (Mars, Titan, Venus, Exoplanets). The 'Z' in LMDZ stands for "zoom" (and the 'LMD' is for 'Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique").
The Earth version of LMDZ is the atmospheric component of the IPSL "Integrated Climate Model", the development of which is coordinated by the "pôle modélisation", and is thus part of the significant international effort to study the evolution and future of the Earth's climate.
Concerning the other planets, dedicated versions have been developed in strong connection with space exploration of the solar system activities, and more recently applied to the case of extra-solar planets.
LMDZ is first and foremost a research tool. A constant concern in the development of LMDZ is to keep it light and easily adaptable.
There is also a constant effort done regarding the evaluation of the capabilities of the model. It is possible with LMDZ to simulate satellite observations (RTTOV, ISCCP, CALIPSO, ...) and the model can be used in semi-operational mode: with zoomed versions guided in real time or not, transport of poluttants and retro-transport, etc.
