SUMMARY

This presentation was produced by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and depicts the Global/Regional Interdependencies in Climate Models and Observations.

The presentation consists of:

• Introduction to Global Climate Models (GCMs)

• Validation of GCM climate simulations

• Global à Regional climate connections

• Regional à Global climate connections

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION AND TEACHING MATERIALS

Download PowerPoint: Global/Regional Interdependencies in Climate Models and Observations

TEACHING NOTES / CONTEXT FOR USE

This PowerPoint presentation can be used to demonstrate how these complex computer programs(collections of numerical algorithms) are:

• Our chief tools for simulating both the historically observed climate and potential future climate change…
• Are based on sets of coupled, nonlinear, time-dependent differential equations that represent physical forcings (e.g. solar heating S, infrared cooling I, turbulent heat transfers H), the dynamics of atmosphere/oceans (e.g. winds and currents), and their interactions with land and sea ice…
• The governing differential equations are approximated as finite differences that are solved (on computers) in grid boxes that map the globe

ASSESSMENT

At the discretion of the educator.

REFERENCES AND RESOURCES

Acknowledgments: Phil Duffy, Celine Bonfils, Yun Duan

This work was performed under the auspices of the U. S. Department of Energy by the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. W-7405-Eng-48 and was supported by the U. S. Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER), Climate Research Division.

UCRL-PRES-226367