WELCOME

"The combination of different seasons, the location of the data,

Aug. 26, 2018 by Kenneth Newton

"The combination of different seasons, the location of the data, the time you live in, and the information you gather on it gives us a basic understanding of the climate situation and what it looks like before and after a given year," says Fitzpatrick and Dunn. "We could look at it as a map of the entire country, where the temperature is rising, and look for a way to predict exactly how that will change."

If you're more experienced in climate modeling, you can look at past models and models that have been adopted to simulate climate variability like the one used here to look at the climate of Chicago. For instance, in the past, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast that the Arctic would be covered by rising sea ice by the end of the century, but in the latest study, they looked at a much younger set of models, finding that sea ice could be expected to increase by roughly 25 to 50 percent by 2040.

"The question that needs to be asked is, how do we go about projecting an ice cap when we don't even know what to expect?" says Fitzpatrick, who is the lead author of the paper.

The paper, published online today in Geophysical Research Letters, takes the data from the last ice melt record, and uses it to extrapolate out how the current climate could change over the next century, using a number of different scenarios.

This data could be used by cities, universities, and other organizations to make predictions about how the world might respond to the potential impacts of climate change. If it’s feasible, it’s possible to use it to forecast future climate change scenarios.

"The question that is most important is how do we get around the assumption that if climate projections are accurate then we all have to act in accordance with what the science says is optimal," says Fitzpatrick.

"We might want to consider what scenarios are best."

If it’s feasible, that means we all have to act in accordance with what the science says is optimal. And what about that? When it comes to weather, the weather models are not always perfect, but they can provide some sense of how climate changes may turn out to be. It’s possible that if the models work well enough, we would all be well equipped to withstand the impacts of climate change, and that would be a very good thing.

These are just some of the examples of ways in which climate projections can help to inform the future of human civilisation.