The University of Nebraska–Lincoln, in partnership with the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s (NCAR) Explorer Series brings you a special lecture with professor Dr. Ross Dixon entitled “What can computational models tell us about Earth’s future climate?” This lecture is part of the new NCAR Traveling Climate Exhibit Real People, Real Climate, Real Changes, on display at the Love Library from March 14 - May 13, 2022. 

Abstract:

We live in a changing world. In the past 100 years, the Earth’s surface air temperature increased an average of 0.6° Celsius (1.1°F) due to an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases produced by burning fossil fuels. While this may not seem like very much, a global change of this magnitude has significant local impacts on human health and well-being. As the atmosphere continues to accumulate greenhouse gases from accelerated emissions, scientists seek to understand what changes to Earth’s climate we might expect in the future. In order to make these predictions, scientists produce computer simulations of the Earth system, also referred to as climate models, and incorporate projected changes from human driven emissions.  But what exactly does a climate model do? How do they work? Why should we trust them?  In this Explorer Series talk, Dr. Ross Dixon discusses  the science of modeling the Earth system and helps answer some of these questions. The talk will explore both simple models of climate and complex Earth system models, which require some of the most powerful supercomputers to run, and provide examples of how they are used to understand Earth’s future climate. This event will be recorded and will be available on the NCAR Explorer Series website. 

The exhibit is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and hosted by the University of Nebraksa-Lincoln Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and University Libraries.