February 18, 2026
ACCESS-rAM3: Hands-on regional modelling workshop
1:45 pm – 4:15 pm; Hotel Grand Chancellor, Hobart
Are you interested in regional climate and weather modelling? Want to run your own high-resolution simulation?
This hands-on workshop will introduce you to running ACCESS-rAM3, a regional model designed to help researchers understand and project weather with an Australian focus. ACCESS-rAM3 includes atmosphere and land-surface components and is an implementation of the UK Met Office Regional Nesting Suite. It allows users to select the specific region and period they wish to simulate, and supports flexible use of land-surface initial conditions from publicly available sources.
The workshop will begin with a short overview of ACCESS-rAM3, followed by a guided walkthrough of the key steps involved in running a basic configuration. Participants will follow along using the Run ACCESS-rAM3 page on the ACCESS-Hive Docs—the main ACCESS model documentation website—with opportunities to explore aspects of the workflow at their own pace. Throughout the session, instructors will be available to answer questions, clarify concepts, and provide support as participants run the model and examine prepared output.
Please note:
- You must be registered for the AMOS Conference 2026 to attend this workshop.
- Time and location is subject to change as the AMOS program is finalised.
- ACCESS-rAM3 runs on the Gadi supercomputer at NCI. While temporary access can be provided for the workshop itself, this session will be most useful to participants who already have—or can obtain—ongoing access to NCI compute resources after the workshop, so they can continue running and exploring the model independently.
- This session will not cover how to choose and set up custom domains, but participants will leave having a core understanding of how ACCESS-rAM3 works, providing the foundation to move toward setting up their own simulations in the future.
You may also like to consider ACCESS-NRI’s ACCESS data information session at the AMOS Conference 2026.
ACCESS-NRI staff facilitate a training workshop. Photo credit: Harshula Jayasuriya
Learning objectives
- Understand what ACCESS-rAM3 is and what it can be used for
- Run a basic ACCESS-rAM3 configuration using the documented workflow
- Navigate and make effective use of the ACCESS-rAM3 documentation and associated tools
- Interpret and explore prepared model output to understand key features of a regional simulation
- Engage with ACCESS-NRI staff and community experts to clarify concepts, model behaviour, and help resources available after the workshop
Prerequisites
- Basic understanding of climate or weather modelling concepts and terminology
- Basic familiarity with the Unix/Linux command line
- Active NCI and MOSRS accounts (instructions for obtaining these accounts will be provided to attendees before the session)
- No prior experience with ACCESS-rAM3—or any climate model—is required