The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an international scientific organisation that provides research-based information about the causes and consequences of climate change, including both human-influenced and naturally-occurring climate change. The IPCC also assesses measures for lessening the severity of climate change and the potential for adapting to its consequences. Read more…
There are more than two dozen scientific institutions around the world that develop climate models, with each centre often building and refining several different models at the same time. The models they produce are typically – though rather unimaginatively – named after the centres themselves. Hence, for example, the Met Read more…
The earliest and most basic numerical climate models are Energy Balance Models (EBMs). EBMs do not simulate the climate, but instead consider the balance between the energy entering the Earth’s atmosphere from the sun and the heat released back out to space. A step along from EBMs are Radiative Convective Read more…
Scientists put the fundamental physical equations of the Earth’s climate into a computer model, which is then able to reproduce – among many other things – the circulation of the oceans, the annual cycle of the seasons, and the flows of carbon between the land surface and the atmosphere. Bringing Read more…
The use of computer models runs right through the heart of climate science. From helping scientists unravel cycles of ice ages hundreds of thousands of years ago to making projections for this century or the next, models are an essential tool for understanding the Earth’s climate. A global climate model Read more…
Earth System Models (ESMs) are the cutting-edge scientific tools used to predict how the global climate and global environmental systems will change in the future. To make predictions of the future evolution of the Earth’s climate requires complex mathematical models that represent all the important processes in the global climate Read more…
The science on the human contribution to modern warming is quite clear. Humans emissions and activities have caused around 100% of the warming observed since 1950. In the following short animation, CarbonBrief explains and shows how each of the major factors affecting the Earth’s climate would influence temperatures in isolation – Read more…