New Frontiers: Earth System
CICS and GFDL scientists are working side by side to advance our understanding of how the Earth’s biogeochemical cycles, including human actions, interact with the climate system. Together, they have made great strides in developing and applying predictive models of climate-the physics backbone of t...
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| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.398.7328 http://www.princeton.edu/aos/news_and_events/AOS-CICS-Newsletter-Spring-2008-rev.pdf |
| Summary: | CICS and GFDL scientists are working side by side to advance our understanding of how the Earth’s biogeochemical cycles, including human actions, interact with the climate system. Together, they have made great strides in developing and applying predictive models of climate-the physics backbone of the ESM. Ranked among the world’s best, GFDL’s climate models have been successful in representing the observed dynamics of El Niño and drying in the African Sahel, and providing good seasonal predictive skill, however, current models simplify biogeochemical processes, such as the carbon cycle – making future predictions less certain. Earth System Models will allow GFDL and Princeton scientists to make better predictions of climate responses to greenhouse gas emissions and land use changes. Like GFDL’s climate models, the earth system models are based on coupled atmosphere-ocean models with representations of land and sea ice dynamics. These models employ a set of mathematical equations and physical parameterizations to study weather, climate, and potential changes, both natural and anthropogenic. The atmospheric component of the model includes representations of atmospheric circulation, cloud physics, aerosols, and precipitation. The land component simulates exchanges of water through evapotranspiration to the atmosphere, and runoff through the rivers to the ocean. The oceanic component includes features such as realistic fresh-water fluxes, currents, sea ice dynamics, and a state-ofthe-art representation of ocean mixing. |
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