The evolution of modelling

New year, new home.

Wait, that's not quite how it goes — not yet, anyway. Though humanity in 2016 is still stuck on the same planet that birthed it, our understanding of how the Earth works is improving year after year. In particular, the models that we use to emulate the climate system are becoming more and more powerful. The most advanced climate models are evolving to become Earth System Models, which are evolving in two main ways: increased resolution and more comprehensive incorporation of various physical processes.

To stress the importance of the former, have a listen to this short interview with Philip Rasch, the leader of the atmosphere group of the ACME project, a US government-funded collaborative effort to develop a next-generation ESM. While you listen, peruse this presentation on UKESM — the British answer to ACME — to gain an understanding of the challenges in the latter aspect of model complexity in ESMs. In particular, given that flexibility is very important if a model is to be usable for a wide array of applications, take note of the image on slide 18 (reproduced below) illustrating how modularity is incorporated into UKESM's design from the get go.

Organisation of the various components of UKESM

It's all exciting stuff, and I dream of being able to participate in the development of these kind of models someday (yes, my dreams are like this).