A new international project, entitled 'Analysis, Integration and Modeling of the Earth System' (AIMES), is being established to build on, improve and expand the former Global Analysis, Integration and Modeling (GAIM) project as a central international and interdisciplinary activity on the study Earth System as a whole.
AIMES will promote activities that link the human and physical sciences for Earth system analysis. Specifically, AIMES will focus on two thematic approaches: coupled understanding of the physical/biogeochemical Earth system; and the human dimensions interface to the physical Earth system.
The new AIMES Project Office will aid AIMES scientists and the overall research community interested in this area by developing enabling projects on: tools and techniques, especially advanced modeling techniques; and fast-track Initiatives, e.g., rapid assessments in support of science and policy uncertainties.
Research activities within the new AIMES project will be derived from both ongoing GAIM activities and new initiatives. These will lead to a growing synergism between development of human dimensions projects and advancement of fully coupled models that would allow the fuller and accelerated inclusion of historical human impacts into Earth System models, providing insights into sensitivity analyses that will be useful in developing future scenarios.
