The M.I.T. General Circulation Model (MITgcm) Release 1 contains code for simulating a wide variety of ocean and atmosphere problems. The model is compatible with platforms ranging from desktop and commodity cluster x86 systems to high-end multi-processor supercomputers. Minimum requirements are a Fortran compiler (the free g77 compiler is sufficient) and a UNIX like operating system (such as Linux, Solaris, IRIX).

A broad span of example problem configurations are included in the release. These examples range from planetary scale circulation simulations of the ocean and atmosphere to high-resolution, small-scale process studies encompassing non-hydrostatic dynamics. In addition to conventional prognostic operation, differentiated forms (both tangent-linear and adjoint) of the MITgcm code can be generated automatically using either the TAMC or TAF automatic differentiation tools. These derivative forms can be used for dynamical sensitivity studies and can also be used, together with appropriate optimisation and control infrastructure, for mathematically rigorous state-estimation and data-assimilation. A seamless interface to the ECCO group optimisation environment is available.