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Global Warming in Ocean and Climate Modeling.

Authors :
Wallace, Mark
Ebrahimi, Alireza
McGee, Pat
Casimir, Rommert J.
Land, Frank
Source :
Communications of the ACM; Jul2000, Vol. 43 Issue 7, p11-14, 4p
Publication Year :
2000

Abstract

The present article focuses on global warming in ocean and climate modeling. It is possible to build reliable models of the climate system that can reproduce diverse aspects of observed climate, including longer-period oscillations affecting people and economies, and that enormous parallel computing power is required to make detailed and accurate predictions with these models. The importance of doing climate study by mentioning the fact that recent observed surface temperature of the northern hemisphere is significantly higher than in previous centuries. In author's opinion as a climate scientist with 30 years professional experience it is increasingly clear that the latter is due to buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Predicted warmings strikingly exceed those expected from natural variability alone. Although one cannot rule out a causal mechanism still unaccounted for in comprehensive models, this is increasingly unlikely, because the models are based on physical and mathematical laws, tested against observations, and independently constructed from first principles by numerous research groups.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
00010782
Volume :
43
Issue :
7
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Communications of the ACM
Publication Type :
Periodical
Accession number :
11951017