Climate Models

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Tools used to simulate and predict changes in weather patterns over time based on a variety of factors, such as greenhouse gas emissions, solar radiation, and ocean currents.

Greenhouse Effect: Understanding how gases in the atmosphere trap heat and keep the planet warm.
Earth's Energy Budget: Understanding the balance of energy on Earth's surface, including incoming and outgoing radiation.
Radiative Transfer: Studying how radiation moves through the atmosphere and interacts with various components, such as clouds and gases.
Ocean Circulation: Understanding how the oceans circulate and how they transport heat around the planet.
Terrestrial Hydrology: Studying the movement of water in soil and vegetation, including runoff, infiltration and evapotranspiration.
Ice-Albedo Feedback: Understanding how changes in reflective surfaces (such as ice and snow) can amplify or dampen climate warming.
Atmospheric Dynamics: Understanding how the atmosphere moves and interacts with the Earth's surface, and how weather patterns and climate regimes are formed.
Aerosol and Cloud Interactions: Understanding how clouds and aerosols (small particles in the atmosphere) interact with each other and with radiation.
Carbon Cycle Feedbacks: Studying how Earth's carbon cycle may change as the climate changes, and how these changes may feedback into the climate system.
Climate Sensitivity: Understanding how sensitive the climate system is to changes in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.
Paleoclimate: Studying ancient climates as a means of understanding potential future climate scenarios.
Regional Climate Modeling: Studying how to model climate changes on a smaller, regional scale.
Global Climate Models (GCMs): These models simulate the climate system with a high resolution grid that covers the entire globe, including the atmosphere, oceans, land surfaces, and ice. They are used to predict future climate change and understand climate dynamics.
Regional Climate Models (RCMs): RCMs are similar to GCMs but have a higher spatial resolution over a smaller area, such as a single continent or country. They are used for regional climate analysis, climate impact assessments, and extreme event simulations.
Earth System Models (ESMs): These models include the interactions between the biosphere, atmosphere, ocean, and land surfaces. They are used to study the interactions between climate change and ecosystem processes, carbon cycle, and biogeochemistry.
Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs): IAMs are used to examine the economic and societal impacts of climate change mitigation policies, combining climate models with economic and social models.
Energy Balance Models (EBMs): EBMs focus on the energy balance of the earth and simulate energy transfer between the atmosphere and surface. They are used to study long-term climate changes.
Paleoclimate Models: These models are used to simulate the climate of the past, using historical and paleontological data. They help scientists understand how the earth's climate has changed over long periods of time.
Data-driven models: These models use machine learning algorithms to analyze large datasets and make predictions about climate patterns. They are used to improve weather forecasting and climate projections.
Simple climate models: These models are simplified versions of more complex models and are often used as educational tools. They help explain the basics of climate science and how different factors can affect global temperatures.
Seasonal climate models: These models are used to make short-term climate predictions, such as for the upcoming season. They help farmers, energy companies, and other industries plan for weather-related risks and opportunities.
Climate models for impact assessments: These models are used to analyze the potential impacts of climate change on different sectors, such as agriculture, water resources, and infrastructure. They are used to inform decision-making and policy development.
"Numerical climate models are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the climate system to projections of future climate."
"Numerical climate models simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate, including atmosphere, oceans, land surface and ice."
"Climate models may also be qualitative (i.e. not numerical) models and also narratives, largely descriptive, of possible futures."
"Quantitative climate models take account of incoming energy from the sun as short wave electromagnetic radiation, chiefly visible and short-wave (near) infrared, as well as outgoing long wave (far) infrared electromagnetic."
"An imbalance results in a change in temperature."
"A simple radiant heat transfer model treats the Earth as a single point and averages outgoing energy."
"This can be expanded vertically (radiative-convective models) and/or horizontally."
"Coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice global climate models solve the full equations for mass and energy transfer and radiant exchange."
"In addition, other types of modeling can be interlinked, such as land use, in Earth System Models."
"This allows researchers to predict the interaction between climate and ecosystems."
"Quantitative climate models use quantitative methods to simulate climate interactions while qualitative models are largely descriptive narratives of possible futures."
"Numerical climate models simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate, including atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and ice."
"Quantitative climate models take account of incoming energy from the sun as short wave electromagnetic radiation, chiefly visible and short-wave (near) infrared, as well as outgoing long wave (far) infrared electromagnetic."
"Numerical climate models are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the climate system to projections of future climate."
"An imbalance results in a change in temperature."
"A simple radiant heat transfer model treats the Earth as a single point and averages outgoing energy."
"This can be expanded vertically (radiative-convective models) and/or horizontally."
"Coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice global climate models solve the full equations for mass and energy transfer and radiant exchange."
"In addition, other types of modeling can be interlinked, such as land use, in Earth System Models."
"This allows researchers to predict the interaction between climate and ecosystems."