ICON-A

ICON-A is a core component of the German natESM system.

ICON-A provides a compelling representation of the mean climate and its variability for the global atmosphere for mostly long simulations developed by MPI-M and DWD. Its climate is similar to that of the last release of the ECHAM model. The atmosphere uses a icosahedral nonhydrostatic dynamical core.
Core features are the closed water cycle and the realistic energy budget, especially at the top of the atmosphere.

The atmosphere model ICON-A and the ocean model ICON-O have been developed jointly. A main accomplishment of the joint development is that the two models share the same technical infrastructure that covers in particular High-Performance-Computing aspects.

The software ICON is now open-source (BSD-3C license).

--> Look in the natESM system table for more information about this optional component.

More information, references, model description about ICON-A here and evaluation here. The ICON documentation is filed on an ICON-wiki. 

NEW: There is also a forum board for exchange about ICON and ComIn. 

If you want to get started, you have to get in touch with the developers. There are also yearly Numerical Model Training Courses - more information.