Climate models

How hot will it be this century? The latest climate models suggest it could be worse than we thought

Climatologists use mathematical models to project Earth’s future in a warming world, but a group of latest models included surprisingly high values ​​for a measure called “climate sensitivity.” Climate sensitivity refers to the relationship between changes in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and warming. High values ​​are a bad surprise. If they’re right, that means […]

Climate models

Cold air is rising – How wrong are our global climate models?

This graph illustrates the buoyancy effect of vapor, in which cold, moist air rises because it is lighter than dry air. Credit: Da Yang/UC Davis The lightness of water vapor dampens global warming in the tropics. Conventional knowledge holds that warm air rises while cold air sinks. But a study from the University of California, […]

Climate models

The latest climate models have unrealistic projections of future warming

A new study by climatologists at the University of Michigan concludes that some of the latest generation climate models may be overly sensitive to increases in carbon dioxide and therefore project unrealistic future warming. In a letter scheduled for publication April 30 in the journal Natural climate changethe researchers say projections from one of the […]