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Applied Mathematics Colloquium

Friday, October 7,  2005, 11:30 am
Cullimore Lecture Hall II
New Jersey Institute of Technology

Climate Models, Climate Forcings and Climate Change

Gavin Schmidt

NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

New York, NY

Abstract

The science of climate change is one of the most complex challenges physical scientists have to deal with, and because of its societal and political implications it is frequently misrepresented and poorly understood in the media and public discourse. I will attempt to explain how some of the science of climate change is done, how it is evaluated and what can and can not be concluded. Specifically, I will discuss the role of climate models - numerical laboratories for the Earth system - and their successes and continuing problems in understanding the past, present and future of climate change.