The highly structured
Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy)

developed at the

Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany

in collaboration with

DLR Institut for Physics of the Atmosphere, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany

Meteorological Institute, Free University of Berlin, Germany

Meteorological Institute, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany

EEWRC, The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus

Institute for Atmospheric Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany

Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany

MPG Rechenzentrum, Garching, Germany

Recent approaches towards Earth System Modeling follow a top-down approach, coupling existing models of different domains (land, ocean, atmosphere, ...) by means of a universal coupler. Yet, to study the interactions between bio-physico-chemical processes, the internal complexity of every domain specific model itself must be controllable in a transparent and user friendly way.
The Modular Earth Submodel System provides - not as an alternative, but rather as a complement to the domain couplers - a bottom-up approach, including a generalized interface structure for the standardized control of submodels and their interconnections. This gives remarkable new possibilities to study feedback mechanisms.
What is MESSy? MESSy is MESSy is NOT messy! You might ask, why we have chosen an acronym with such a negative touch ... ? Well, we did this on purpose - to be self-ironic and a little provocative to make people think about it - about how models have been so far ... And it seems to work ...!
Note of caution: The MESSy submodels listed on this web-site (MESSy Submodels) include contributions from many modelers in several institutions. It is important that developers and contributors to submodels are properly credited and informed. You are requested to follow the guidelines as indicated with the submodels. In case of doubt, errors, or disagreements, please contact the scientific coordinator.
This page was last modified on 17 Dec 2009.
If you have comments or suggestions, e-mail me at Patrick.Joeckel@dlr.de  !