Sam Wormley
2015-07-30 15:47:02 UTC
New study narrows the gap between climate models and reality
http://phys.org/news/2015-07-narrows-gap-climate-reality.html
A new study led by a University of York scientist addresses an
important question in climate science: how accurate are climate model
projections?
Climate models are used to estimate future global warming, and their
accuracy can be checked against the actual global warming observed so
far. Most comparisons suggest that the world is warming a little more
slowly than the model projections indicate. Scientists have wondered
whether this difference is meaningful, or just a chance fluctuation.
Dr Kevin Cowtan, of the Department of Chemistry at York, led an
international study into this question and its findings are published
in Geophysical Research Letters. The research team found that the way
global temperatures were calculated in the models failed to reflect
real-world measurements. The climate models use air temperature for
the whole globe, whereas the real-world data used by scientists are a
combination of air and sea surface temperature readings.
Dr Cowtan said: "When comparing models with observations, you need to
compare apples with apples."
A new study led by a University of York scientist addresses an
important question in climate science: how accurate are climate model
projections?
Climate models are used to estimate future global warming, and their
accuracy can be checked against the actual global warming observed so
far. Most comparisons suggest that the world is warming a little more
slowly than the model projections indicate. Scientists have wondered
whether this difference is meaningful, or just a chance fluctuation.
Dr Kevin Cowtan, of the Department of Chemistry at York, led an
international study into this question and its findings are published
in Geophysical Research Letters. The research team found that the way
global temperatures were calculated in the models failed to reflect
real-world measurements. The climate models use air temperature for
the whole globe, whereas the real-world data used by scientists are a
combination of air and sea surface temperature readings.
Dr Cowtan said: "When comparing models with observations, you need to
compare apples with apples."
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to the discussion of physics, news from the physics
community, and physics-related social issues.