The International Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) Initiative

n 2006, climate applications scientists in Queensland, Australia, asked the lead author if a longer and more complete historical weather record could be created and fed directly into various crop, pasture, and production models. Existing dynamical reanalyses were steps toward such a product, but they spanned only the last six decades and had well-known shortcomings. To meet the needs of application scientists, new reanalyses would have to extend much further back in time while maintaining accuracy with limited observations. They would also need to be disseminated in a way that is easy to use directly and to downscale to small regions.