Models
Current revision (17:58, 16 February 2010) (view source) |
|||
| Line 10: | Line 10: | ||
The '''Climate Navigator''' currently hosts two models: | The '''Climate Navigator''' currently hosts two models: | ||
| - | *[[ | + | *[[CoolClimate Calculator|'''CoolClimate Calculator''']] |
*[[Gas-CAP|'''Gas-CAP''']] | *[[Gas-CAP|'''Gas-CAP''']] | ||
Current revision
The Climate Navigator's Models' domain will provide information to help governments and scientists to maneuver through the complexity of models and results. General information on models and how they contribute to research and action on climate change is found here.The Hosted Models section provides examples of climate and energy models with which visitors can interact directly to answer very specific questions. The Other Models section contains information to help understand the flood of models and modeling information entering the climate debate every day.
Models have been essential to our understanding the climate change phenomena. They will be essential if we want to answer several important questions: How fast is the climate changing? How will warming affect my planet, my country, my city, and even my house? How much will it cost to avoid or to adjust to climate change? Models provide the foresight that we need in order to tackle these debates.
However, models can inspire their own debates: which model should you trust, in what contexts is it valid, and why? Climate change will effect an incredibly wide scope of biomes, cultures, and industries. It is an inherently complex field, so models must incorporate as much information as possible in order to provide a good picture of the problem at hand. Many parts of the climate can be described by relatively simple mathematics, but when put together, these mathematical relationships become very complex. The modeler is forced to choose which factors and data points to include.
Perhaps you've heard of the Butterfly effect - the idea that the flutter of a butterfly's wings could create a bit of turbulence, which in theory could combine with other minor events to create a potent tempest. Without the extra boost from the butterfly, the storm would never gathered - the humble butterfly acted as the tipping point. Though today's computers cannot reach the butterfly level of resolution, modelers try to determine the most important effects that determine how the climate operates, and attempt to do these factors justice in their models. One of the most important goals of climate modelers is to discover under what conditions tipping points arise--for instance how much climate change will it take for the frightening prospect of slowing ocean currents begin to become a significant problem.
The Climate Navigator's Models domain provides information to help governments and scientists to maneuver through the complexity of models and results. The Hosted Models section provides examples of climate and energy models with which visitors can interact directly to answer very specific questions. The Other Models section contains information to help understand the flood of models and modeling information entering the climate debate every day.
The Climate Navigator currently hosts two models:
Recently modified Modeling articles: