SCREAMv1 Paper Recognized as One of the 10 Most-Cited JAMES Papers of 2024
The E3SM Project has another milestone to celebrate: the paper introducing the Simple Cloud-Resolving E3SM Atmosphere Model version 1 (SCREAMv1) has become one of the 10 most-cited papers published by Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES) in 2024, according to congratulatory emails sent out to the authors in April (Fig. 1).
Figure 1. Snippet of congratulatory email sent out to authors of the paper.
The paper — “To Exascale and Beyond — The Simple Cloud-Resolving E3SM Atmosphere Model (SCREAM), a Performance Portable Global Atmosphere Model for Cloud-Resolving Scales” by Donahue et al. — describes the culmination of years of work to build a next-generation atmospheric model purpose-built for GPU-accelerated supercomputers.
SCREAMv1 was built from the ground up in C++ using the Kokkos library, enabling efficient operation across a wide range of architectures, including traditional CPU-based systems and cutting-edge GPU platforms. The payoff has been extraordinary: SCREAMv1 surpasses one simulated year per day (SYPD) for global simulations at 3.25-km grid spacing, a threshold once thought out of reach for a global atmospheric model.
That performance is matched by scientific credibility. SCREAMv1 realistically simulates atmospheric rivers, midlatitude jets, and organized convective systems. The work earned SCREAMv1’s team an inaugural specialized Gordon Bell Prize in 2023.
The paper’s high citation count reflects broad interest from the global modeling community in E3SM’s approach to exascale simulation — and signals that SCREAMv1 is becoming a reference point for the field as it moves toward kilometer-scale global modeling.
Congratulations to Aaron Donahue, Peter Caldwell, and the full SCREAMv1 team on this well-deserved recognition.
Reference
Donahue, A. S., Caldwell, P. M., Bertagna, L., Beydoun, H., Bogenschutz, P. A., Bradley, A. M., et al. (2024). To exascale and beyond—The Simple Cloud-Resolving E3SM Atmosphere Model (SCREAM), a performance portable global atmosphere model for cloud-resolving scales. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 16, e2024MS004314. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024MS004314
Contact
- Aaron Donahue, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Peter Caldwell, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
This article is a part of the E3SM “Floating Points” Newsletter, to read the full Newsletter check:
- E3SM Floating Points, May ’26: Looking Forward to the Summer All-Hands
