JULES - Joint UK Land Environment Simulator

JULES (the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator) is a community land surface model that is used both as a standalone model and as the land surface component in the Met Office Unified Model. JULES is a core component of both the Met Office's modelling infrastructure and NERC's Earth System Modelling Strategy. JULES is a major part of the UK's contribution to global model intercomparison projects (e.g. CMIP6) and is placed firmly at the cutting edge of international land surface modelling because of continual science development and improved accessibility.

JULES has been developed by a wide community of UK researchers, coordinated by UKMO and UKCEH. By allowing different land surface processes (surface energy balance, hydrological cycle, carbon cycle, dynamic vegetation, etc.) to interact with each other, JULES provides a framework to assess the impact of modifying a particular process on the ecosystem as a whole, e.g. the impact of climate change on hydrology, and to study potential feedbacks.

The JULES Fair Use and Publication Policy provides guidance on how members of the JULES community should collaborate with one another in order to recognise the intellectual contribution of those whose work has made the existence of JULES possible. Doing so strengthens the case for further investment in model developments and ensures appropriate credit is given to JULES developers by the user community. This Policy applies to all uses of JULES products, including but not limited to data and computer code, for research, teaching or commercial applications. It is not intended to restrict what can be done with JULES products, rather to ensure appropriate acknowledgement and communication between users and developers.

JULES is available to anyone for non-commercial use, free of charge (see Licensing). This has led to a large and diverse community from across the globe using JULES to study land surface processes on a wide variety of temporal and spatial scales. The JULES community has regular meetings where researchers using JULES can present results and discuss issues with their peers over a glass of wine.

The development of JULES is governed by a community process, and is presided over by committees comprised of representatives from organisations providing significant resources for the ongoing development of JULES.