Can We Trust Climate Models? Increasingly, The Answer is ‘Yes’

By Yale Environment 360 on February 4, 2011 Comments Off on Can We Trust Climate Models? Increasingly, The Answer is ‘Yes’ airflow, Antarctica, atmosphere, atmospheric carbon dioxide, biosphere, climate, Climate Central, Climate Change, climate models, climate projections, climate scientists, climate skeptics, climate system, climate variations, CO2, computer models, cumulus clouds, Dust Bowl, El Nino, energy balance, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, GFDL, GHG, global carbon cycle, Global climate models, global temperature, greenhouse gases, Greenland, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, James Hurrell, Keith Dixon, La Niña, Livermore National Laboratory, Michael D. Lemonick, National Center for Atmospheric Research, NCAR, ocean dynamics, oceans, parameterization, Peter Gleckler, Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison, radiation, rainfall patterns, sea level, sea-ice, Synthesis Report, weather forecasting

Forecasting what the Earth’s climate might look like a century from now has long presented a huge challenge to climate scientists. But better understanding of the climate system, improved observations of the current climate, and rapidly improving computing power are slowly leading to more reliable methods.