Abstract

January 23, 2006

Title: Climate Simulation for Climate Change Studies
Presented by: David C. Bader, Director, Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Video Podcast

Climate modeling is one of the most well known simulation problems that requires high-end computing, data, and network resources. Because it is impossible to build a physical laboratory to study climate, climate simulation models are the only tools with which scientists can integrate their knowledge to gain understanding of this highly nonlinear and complex system. Climate simulation has advanced dramatically over the last two decades, in large part because of demands to study the potential climate changes brought about by human activities, principally the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations that result from combustion of carbon-based fossil fuels for energy production.

This presentation will provide a brief introduction to the scientific aspects of climate science and their representation within climate simulation models. The primary focus of the presentation will be on the use of models to simulate climate change. The practical limitations imposed by throughput considerations, computer architectures, programming tools, and available computer resources will be identified. There will be particular emphasis on two unique elements of climate change research that have evolved over the past decade that maximize the impact of climate simulation to inform science policy.

The first element is the establishment of coordinated climate simulation experiments, called model intercomparison projects, or MIPs, by international modeling groups. This approach has led to the construction of a rich archive of model simulation results that are accessible by hundreds of climate researchers worldwide. The storage and network requirements to build, maintain, and provide access to this archive is a significant challenge, particularly as the volume and diversity of the data grow in future experiments. The second element is the development of community modeling codes, which contain the intellectual contributions of many individual and modeling groups. Climate simulation models are research tools which continually evolve, but are also used extensively for ongoing research. Moreover, the groups that use the models are often different from those who develop them. The social and technological challenge of developing community models that stay at the cutting edge of science, but also meet a wide range of needs is daunting.