The Mars atmosphere Global Climate Model (GCM) developed at the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique [1] in collaboration with several teams around the world (LATMOS, the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, UAE University, University of Oxford, The Open University), and with the support of ESA and CNES is currently used for many kinds of applications. It simulates Mars from the subsurface to the top of the thermosphere and includes the cycles of dust, water and CO2 that control the current Martian climate as well as a photo-chemical/ionospheric module.
The aim of this modeling is high: ultimately to build a numerical simulator based only on universal equations, yet able to consistently reproduce available observations. The goal is to create a realistic virtual planet on which all observed phenomena and climate-induced geological landforms arise naturally. Like for the other similar models in the community, this specific goal is a scientific endeavour by itself.
Such a GCM can also provide useful environmental predictions that can be used to process observations or prepare space missions. For this purpose our teams have produced the Mars Climate Database (See Millour et al., this issue) which provides climatologies derived from GCM simulations completed by dedicated tools. The GCM is also used to perform meteorological data assimilation to create an optimal description of the Martian environment obtained by combining observation and model simulations (See e.g. Young et al., Read et al., Holmes et al., this issue)
