MONAN (Model for Ocean-laNd-Atmosphere PredictioN) is a community model of the Earth system whose main goal is to seamlessly represent Earth system processes across all spatial and temporal scales relevant to weather and climate. While most models of this kind are being developed by research centers in the Global North, MONAN is being especially tailored for applications over Latin America and the Caribbean. It is a “community model” because it results from the joint efforts of several institutions such as universities, research and operational centers, as well as various authorities in the areas of meteorology, environment, ocean science, and other fields in Brazil and in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The MONAN model is managed by a scientific committee appointed by the director of INPE (Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research). Its initial version (0.1.0), representing only the atmosphere, was based on the dynamical core of the MPAS 8.0.1 model (see https://github.com/MPAS-Dev/MPAS-Model). Part of its physics is inherited from MPAS, and part of it is being developed and implemented by the community. The atmospheric component is currently being coupled to the ocean model MOM6 (https://github.com/NOAA-GFDL/MOM6-examples).
Last update: Oct 2026.
Resources
- MONAN-Model GitHub Repository: github.com/monanadmin/MONAN-Model
Publications
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Distância de Mahalanobis: uma visão holística de um conjunto de dados. Rosa, Marcelo Barbio; Frassoni, Ariane; Fernandez, Júlio Pablo Reyes. INPE - Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, 2026. Full text available here
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Avaliação estatística da precipitação do MONAN versão 1.4.3-RC. Lyra, André de Arruda; Eras, Eduardo Rohde; Mendonça, Guilherme Luiz Torres; Hernandez, Lianet; Casagrande, Madeleine Sanchez Gacita; Kubota, Paulo Yoshio; Freitas, Saulo Ribeiro de. INPE - Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, 2026. Full text available here
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Aspectos computacionais e de operacionalização do MONAN-Model versão 1.4.3-rc. Khamis, E. G.; Souza, C. R. de; Katsurayama, D. M.; Silva, J. M. A. da; Rodrigues, L. F.; Ramos, M. P.; Neto, S. V. B. INPE - Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, 2026. Full text available here
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Documento Técnico Normativo (DTN) - Padrão de Codificação para o MONAN (Model for Ocean-laNd-Atmosphere predctioN): DTN-01 - VERSÃO 0.1.0. Khamis, E. G.; Souza, C. R. de; Eiras, D. M. de A.; Silva, J. M. A. da; Ramos, M. P.; Claudio, K. e Rodrigues, L. F. INPE - Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, 2025. Full text available here
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Model for Ocean-laNd-Atmosphere predictioN (MONAN): Avaliação dos candidatos ao núcleo dinâmico do componente atmosférico (MONAN-ATM) – Recomendação ao Comitê Científico do MONAN. Freitas, S. R. INPE - Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, 2023. Full text available here
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Relatório Técnico: Perspectivas da Modelagem Numérica dos processos de microfísica de nuvens no Brasil e suas aplicações no modelo comunitário MONAN. Kubota, Paulo Yoshio; Gutierrez, Enver Manuel Amador Ramirez; Rivero, Silvio Nilo Figueroa; Manco, Jhonatan Andres Aguirre; Gomes, Jorge Luis; Bonatti, José Paulo; Chan, Chou Sin; Freitas, Saulo Ribeiro; Souza, Dayana Castilho e Lima, Isabella Talamoni. INPE - Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, 2023. Full text available here
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Avaliação computacional de núcleos dinâmicos candidatos para o MONAN. Rodrigues, L. F.; Souza, C. R. de; Eiras, D. M. de A.; Khamis, E. G.; Garcia, E. L. M.; Silva, J. M. A. da; Claudio, K. e Souto, R. P. INPE - Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, 2023. Full text available here
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Avaliação da funcionalidade de software de Modelos Numéricos de escala global para o projeto MONAN - Parte I: Análise qualitativa, quantitativa e multivariada. Frassoni, Ariane; Fernandez, Julio Pablo; Rosa, Marcelo Barbio; Rozante, José Roberto; Yamada, Bárbara A. G. P. INPE - Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, 2023. Full text available here
Thesis and Dissertations using the MONAN system
- Exploring cold pools dynamics in MONAN: insights from numerical simulations of hurricanes. Bianca Fusinato. INPE - Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, 2025. Full text available here
Workshops and Trainings
2026
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5th Workshop on Convective Organization (WCO5) | 9–12 March 2026.
2025
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WMO Training Course on Weather Forecasting - and beyond - for Regional Meteorological Centers | 17–28 November 2025.
Media Coverage: “Mejorando la Capacidad Regional de Pronóstico y Alerta Temprana en las Américas”
2024
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1st Community Training of MONAN/MPAS-A and MPAS-JEDI | 12–16 August 2024.
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1st MONAN Meeting: AI for atmosphere/ocean dynamics | 19–21 June 2024.
2023
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1st DIMNT Internal Workshop to start work with MONAN-ATM/SFC | 2–3 October 2023.