Down-and-dirty details of climate modeling
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - 10:02
in Earth & Climate
For the first time, researchers have developed a comprehensive approach to look at aerosolsthose fine particles found in pollutionand their effect on clouds and climate. Scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory improved how aerosols are accounted for in a global climate model used to predict climate change by embedding a high-resolution model in each climate grid. The embedded model replaces parameterization, a simplified method currently used to reckon small-scale climate processes. The new integrated approach brings the small scale to the global scale, for more effective climate modeling.