Climate Modeling

Toward a Regional Earth System Model

By CIRCulator Editorial Staff Reprinted from: The Climate CIRCulator NUMERICAL models of the climate system continue to evolve and improve, incorporating more and more elements that influence climate. Two important directions of improvement are finer spatial resolution (being able to drill down to smaller and smaller areas), and representations of that most unpredictable aspect of […]

Scenario Planning Series, Part 2: Bring on the Acronyms! A Brief Overview of IPCC Scenarios

By Liz Allen No one can definitively predict how human behavior and decision-making will affect greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale. Considering human actions, however, is key to understanding what future climate change impacts may occur. This is why developing scenarios based on a range of different storylines about how society might change in […]

Scenario Planning Series, Part 1: Taking a “Horse’s Eye” View of the Future

By: Liz Allen When we investigate the future of agriculture under climate change, we think in terms of scenarios. Generally speaking, a scenario is a collection of assumptions about future conditions and trends. In some climate impact models, scenarios are complex and clearly defined, beginning with storylines that describe how various social, economic and environmental […]