The researchers are specialists in the fields of atmosphere, ice and oceans. Understanding the Arctic climate is important because global climate changes often show up first in the Arctic. This makes the Arctic the bellwether for predicting global climate change. Many scientists test their theories about the Arctic using supercomputers that describe nature mathematically. This is called modelling.
Scientists use supercomputers to model tiny snowflakes or the entire Arctic region.
A complex supercomputer model will calculate the effect of ocean currents, wind, precipitation, ice cover, cloud cover, and seasonal changes on the Arctic climate. The workshop is sponsored by the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center and the Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research. More than 60 scientists from throughout the United States are attending. The conference runs through Friday, July 29, at the Geophysical Institute on the UAF campus. Several scientists at the workshop are modelling the complex Arctic climate systems using the powerful supercomputer called Denali at the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center on the UAF campus.