Latest Global climate model Stories

Measurements taken by air, land, and sea will improve climate modelingDuring October and November 2008, some 150 scientists from 40 institutions in eight nations "” including scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory "” will take part in an international field experiment designed to make observations of critical components of the climate system of the southeastern Pacific. Because elements of this system are poorly understood and poorly...

Using state-of-the-art supercomputers, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory climate scientists have performed a 400-year high-resolution global ocean-atmosphere simulation with results that are more similar to actual observations of surface winds and sea surface temperatures. The research, led by LLNL atmospheric scientist Govindasamy Bala, appears in the April 1 edition of the Journal of Climate.The researchers used the Community Climate System Model (CCSM), which is sponsored by the...

By McKenney, Daniel W Pedlar, John H; Lawrence, Kevin; Campbell, Kathy; Hutchinson, Michael F Currently predicted change in climate could strongly affect plant distributions during the next century. Here we determine the present- day climatic niches for 130 North American tree species. We then locate the climatic conditions of these niches on maps of predicted future climate, indicating where each species could potentially occur by the end of the century. A major unknown in this work is the...

JPL -- A study by NASA and university scientists is shedding new light on a mysterious, cyclical wave in Earth's atmosphere that at times profoundly affects our planet's weather and climate. Using satellite data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (Airs) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft, a research team led by Dr. Duane Waliser of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Dr. Baijun Tian of the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena,, set out to study the...

ESA -- Using recent Cassini, Huygens and Earth-based observations, scientists have been able to create a computer model which explains the formation of several types of ethane and methane clouds on Titan. Clouds have been observed recently on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, through the thick haze, using near-infrared spectroscopy and images of the south pole and temperate regions near 40° South. Recent observations from Earth-based telescopes and the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini spacecraft are...

NASA satellites improve understanding of urban effects on climate and weatherNASA -- Just how does society's desire to live in densely populated areas have the potential to change our Earth's climate? According to a new paper, satellites can help us answer that question. "More and more people live in cities. This means that cities will grow rapidly over the next several decades. Evidence continues to mount that cities affect the climate," said J. Marshall Shepherd, Deputy Project...

NASA -- Researchers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and several other government and academic institutions have created four new supercomputer simulations that for the first time combine their mathematical computer models of the atmosphere, ocean, land surface and sea ice. These simulations are the first field tests of the new Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF), an innovative software system that promises to improve and accelerate U.S. predictive capability ranging from...

SANTA CRUZ, CA - During the most recent period in Earth's past with a climate warmer than today, the tropical Pacific was in a stable state of El Niño-like conditions, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Whether this represents a likely scenario for the future, given the current rise in global temperatures, is uncertain. Nevertheless, the study has important implications for scientists trying to understand the global climate system and how...

Sea level rise to outpace temperature increaseBOULDER -- Even if all greenhouse gases had been stabilized in the year 2000, we would still be committed to a warmer Earth and greater sea level rise in the present century, according to a new study by a team of climate modelers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The findings are published in this week's issue of the journal Science. The modeling study quantifies the relative rates of sea level rise and global temperature...