Climate-Energy Modeling

Climate and energy models are based on Earth’s physical processes that are driven by energy from the Sun. Climate models can be used to simulate atmospheric processes that transfer energy and mass throughout the climate system. Climate models are also known as general circulation models (GCMs) and use mathematical equations to simulate the atmospheric processes. Building and running climate models includes a complex process of identifying and quantifying Earth system processes by separating Earth’s surface into a three-dimensional grid of cells. For the global system, the grid cell size is typically much larger than the grid cell sizes for downscaled regional or local climate models (e.g. 1 – 4 km). Powerful supercomputers are usually required to repeatedly solve the mathematical equations required for GCMs and downscaled climate modeling.