Python Glacier Evolution Model (PyGEM)

Overview: Python Glacier Evolution Model (PyGEM) is an open-source glacier evolution model coded in Python that models the transient evolution of glaciers. Each glacier is modeled independently using a monthly timestep. PyGEM has a modular framework that allows different schemes to be used for model calibration or model physics (e.g., climatic mass balance, glacier dynamics).

Manual: Details concerning the model physics, installation, and running the model may be found here.

Usage: PyGEM is meant for large-scale glacier evolution modeling. PyGEM<1.0.0 are no longer being actively being supported.

---

Installation

PyGEM can be downloaded from the Python Package Index (PyPI). We recommend creating a dedicated Anaconda environment to house PyGEM.

conda create --name <environment_name> python=3.12
conda activate <environment_name>
pip install pygem

This will install all PyGEM dependencies within your conda environment, and set up PyGEM command line tools to run core model scripts.

---

Setup

Following installation, an initialization script should to be executed.

The initialization script accomplishes two things:

1. Initializes the PyGEM configuration file ~/PyGEM/config.yaml. If this file already exists, an overwrite prompt will appear.
2. Downloads and unzips a set of sample data files to ~/PyGEM/, which can also be manually downloaded here.

Run the initialization script by entering the following in the terminal:

initialize

---

Development

Please report any bugs here.

If you are interested in contributing to further development of PyGEM, we recommend forking PyGEM and then cloning onto your local machine.

Note, if PyGEM was already installed via PyPI, first uninstall:

pip uninstall pygem

You can then use pip to install your locally cloned fork of PyGEM in 'editable' mode to easily facilitate development like so:

pip install -e /path/to/your/cloned/pygem/fork/

---

Model Testing

To support model testing and demonstration, a suite of Jupyter notebooks can be found within a separate PyGEM-notebooks repository.

---

Version
Citation
License
Systems	- Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.8 - macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon) - Note, we suggest that Windows users install PyGEM using either the Windows Subsystem for Linux or Oracle VirtualBox