NASA scientists use computer models to study climate change. This short video explains the basics of climate models, their origin and how the new NASA Glory mission will help to reduce uncertainties and fill in critical scientific gaps in our knowledge about the complex climate system.
Using complicated equations, computers crunch numbers and calculate changes based on all the data. But the models are not placed into service until their simulated results match real world events.
Climate models look forward by taking a step back. They reproduce the same conditions to accurately portray the given climate at a particular time or during a specific event. By capturing what happened in a model scientists feel confident that will also work going forward — as a tool to predict how the climate is changing.
“Models are important forthe scientific community because they capture the essence and the basic understanding of what we have of how our system works on a lot of different time scales and space scales for a lot of different applications from weather all the way to climate.” — Michele Rienecker, NASA global modeling and simulation scientist
NASA will launch the Glory satellite on November 22.
