MPCA Home > Climate Change > Climate Modeling

Climate Change:
Climate Modeling

Climate models simulate the interactions of the atmosphere, land surfaces, oceans, and ice, based on laws of physics, fluid motion, and chemistry. Models may be simple, like radiative transfer, or complex, like coupled atmospheric-ocean general circulation models. The most detailed models calculate wind, thermodynamics, solar and terrestrial radiation, relative humidity, precipitation, evaporation, and runoff, and also calculate the interactions of these processes over large areas.

Some modeling research centers are:

• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
• NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)
• Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL)
• UK Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research
• World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)
• University of Victoria Climate Modeling Lab
• Climate Prediction

For further information about climate modeling, the US Climate Change Science Program published a Synthesis and Assessment Product that evaluates the strengths and limitations of climate models.

• US Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.1: Climate Models – An Assessment of Strengths and Limitations (July 2008)