What Improvements do Models Need to be More Accurate?
Interactions with other parts of the Earth system

Climate models can be more realistic by exchanging information with models that represent the ocean, land surface, hydrology, vegetation cover, sea ice extent, atmospheric chemistry and other processes. When we combine a climate model with a code that models the ocean or land surface or other Earth process, the resulting model is called a Coupled Model . Let's talk about some of these.

Just like two heads are better than one, two models are better than one. The coupled models are better able to represent realistic processes and interactions between the atmosphere and other parts of the earth system than either one on its own.

For example, land surface models predict conditions on the continents. If they are coupled to a GCM, they will get information like radiation, cloud cover, and amount of rainfall from the GCM. In turn, they give the GCM information about the temperature and fluxes of heat and moisture from the surface. Land surface models also can calculate more than just the weather. They can represent different kinds of vegetation, which undergoes photosynthesis and respiration and allows modelers to study the flow of carbon between the atmosphere and the biosphere.

The Denning research group at CMMAP is studying land surface. Here is a link to their research website.

Studying these interactions is crucial in the face of global climate change and increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

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Links and resources