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With the advent of climate change as a major challenge of our time, Earth system modeling has become highly policy‐relevant regulatory science. In this situation, the social mechanisms that play a role in any scientific endeavor become particularly exposed. By discussing historical, philosophical, and sociological (HPS) aspects of the field's current "cultures of prediction" together with the physical science community in a physical science journal, we aim to provide an entry point into HPS reasoning for climate scientists interested in reflecting on their field and science in general. This paper, first, introduces our perspective on "science as culture" and climate modeling as "regulatory science" and, second, highlights and connects relevant ideas from the three commentaries that follow it. In so doing, we hope to give a fuller picture of climate science, the interplay it engenders between HPS and the physical sciences, the distinctions that it gives rise to as compared to some of the more traditional, exact, sciences in which it is rooted and its place in society including its role in scientific policy advice. Key Points: With the advent of climate change as a major challenge of our time, Earth system modeling has become highly policy relevantIn this situation, the social mechanisms that play a role in any scientific endeavor become particularly exposedThis paper introduces perspectives on "science as culture" and highlights relevant ideas from the three subsequent commentaries [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the GISS‐E2.1 contribution to the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, Phase 6 (CMIP6). This model version differs from the predecessor model (GISS‐E2) chiefly due to parameterization improvements to the atmospheric and ocean model components, while keeping atmospheric resolution the same. Model skill when compared to modern era climatologies is significantly higher than in previous versions. Additionally, updates in forcings have a material impact on the results. In particular, there have been specific improvements in representations of modes of variability (such as the Madden‐Julian Oscillation and other modes in the Pacific) and significant improvements in the simulation of the climate of the Southern Oceans, including sea ice. The effective climate sensitivity to 2 × CO2 is slightly higher than previously at 2.7–3.1°C (depending on version) and is a result of lower CO2 radiative forcing and stronger positive feedbacks. Plain Language Summary: This paper describes the latest iteration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) climate model, which will be used for understanding historical climate change and to make projections for the future. We compare the model output to a wide range of observations over the recent era (1979–2014) and show that there has been a significant increase in how well the model performs compared to the previous version from 2014, particularly in the Southern Ocean, though some persistent biases remain. The model has a temperature response to the increase of carbon dioxide that is slightly higher than previous versions but is well within the range expected from observational and past climate constraints. Key Points: GISS‐E2.1 is an updated climate model version for use within the CMIP6 projectAtmospheric composition is calculated consistently in all model versionsResults demonstrate a significant improvement in skill in a climate model without changes to atmospheric resolution [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Going Green! Middle Schoolers Out to Save the World project aims to direct middle school students' enthusiasm for hands‐on activities toward interest in science and other STEM areas while guiding them to solve real‐world problems. Students in this project are taught by their teachers to use energy monitoring equipment to audit standby power consumed by electronic devices in their homes and communities. Major findings were: (a) Beliefs in climate change increased more for students in the treatment than comparison group, pre to post; and (b) For girls there was a larger positive impact on climate change beliefs than for boys. These and additional findings presented in this paper provide evidence that a hands‐on engaged‐learning curriculum can have a positive influence on climate change beliefs and intentions and strengthen the association between the two constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The amount of sunshine weighs heavily in our perception of the weather. It is largely determined by cloud cover, especially that at the low-to-medium level. Therefore, when reviewing the Hong Kong Observatory's weather symbol forecasting product, verification on the low-to-medium cloud field is carried out against the synoptic observations at the Hong Kong International Airport. Several metrics are used to examine the different aspects of the forecasts, and consideration is given to the non-Gaussian nature of the reported cloud amount for a fairer assessment. Based on the data from January to mid-August 2015, the median of the forecasts from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Ensemble Prediction System is found to outperform the other model forecasts, particularly when the performance is examined by forecast day. This paper presents these results and also discusses the potential of using the field in deriving site-specific weather symbol forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the recently developed variable-resolution option within the Community Earth System Model (VR-CESM) is assessed for long-term regional climate modeling of California at 0.25° (∼28 km) and 0.125° (∼14 km) horizontal resolutions. The mean climatology of near-surface temperature and precipitation is analyzed and contrasted with reanalysis, gridded observational data sets, and a traditional regional climate model (RCM)-the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Statistical metrics for model evaluation and tests for differential significance have been extensively applied. With only prescribed sea surface temperatures, VR-CESM tended to produce a warmer summer (by about 1-3°C) and overestimated overall winter precipitation (about 25%-35%) compared to reference data sets. Increasing resolution from 0.25° to 0.125° did not produce a statistically significant improvement in the model results. By comparison, the analogous WRF climatology (constrained laterally and at the sea surface by ERA-Interim reanalysis) was ∼1-3°C colder than the reference data sets, underestimated precipitation by ∼20%-30% at 27 km resolution, and overestimated precipitation by ∼65-85% at 9 km. Overall, VR-CESM produced comparable statistical biases to WRF in key climatological quantities. This assessment highlights the value of variable-resolution global climate models (VRGCMs) in capturing fine-scale atmospheric processes, projecting future regional climate, and addressing the computational expense of uniform-resolution global climate models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]