Photo Gallery Simulating the Climate
The results of a climate simulation. Instead of concrete temperature results for each region of the Earth, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change now indicates the probability that a given temperature increase will be reached.
Temperature predictions for various models and emission scenarios. Each climate model delivers different results. When the results are similar, researchers see them as confirmation that they accurately describe real processes.
There are a number of potential problems that climate models can run into. But researchers think they have the variables more or less under control.
Researchers have to account for some variables artificially -- like clouds. "Clouds influence the transfer of radiation -- how much sunlight is reflected and how much is allowed to pass through," Marco Giorgetta of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg explains. To account for this, each grid point is assigned a value representing the degree of cloudiness for each point in time. It is a process without which climate models would not work -- and which some climate researchers find fault with.
Individual weather phenomenon, like this Texas tornado, do not make an appearance in the climate models. But the processes that cause them do.
Researchers attempt to calibrate their models to account for huge movements of air and water to make predictions about temperatures in 2100.
