What can computer models tell us about Earth's future climate?
Channel: NSF NCAR & UCAR Science Education
Date: 2022-03-28

This lecture was co-hosted by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and University Libraries. 

We live in a changing world. In the past 100 years, the Earth’s surface air temperature increased an average of 0.6° Celsius (1.1°F) due to an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases produced by burning fossil fuels. While this may not seem like very much, a global change of this magnitude has significant local impacts on human health and well-being. As the atmosphere continues to accumulate greenhouse gases from accelerated emissions, scientists seek to understand what changes to Earth’s climate we might expect in the future. In order to make these predictions, scientists produce computer simulations of the Earth system, also referred to as climate models, and incorporate projected changes from human driven emissions.  But what exactly does a climate model do? How do they work? Why should we trust them?  In this Explorer Series talk, Dr. Ross Dixon discusses  the science of modeling the Earth system and helps answer some of these questions. The talk will explore both simple models of climate and complex Earth system models, which require some of the most powerful supercomputers to run, and provide examples of how they are used to understand Earth’s future climate.

This lecture is part of the new NCAR Traveling Climate Exhibit Real People, Real Climate, Real Changes, on display at the Love Library on the University of Nebraska–Lincoln campus from March 14 - May 13, 2022.

Traveling Climate Exhibit:
https://scied.ucar.edu/travelingclimate

More Explorer Series events:
https://edec.ucar.edu/events