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Computer climate models are some of the most complex scientific structures ever conceived. Consisting of hundreds of thousands of equations and running on supercomputers capable of trillions of operations per second, they chart the evolution of past and future climates across thousands of years. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Endeavour (New series) 2006-06, Vol.30 (2), p.55-59
Main Author: Greene, Mott T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
Climate
Computer Simulation
Environmental Monitoring - history
Forecasting
General history of technology
History of science and technology
History, 20th Century
Humans
Models, Biological
Technology
Weather
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Summary:Computer climate models are some of the most complex scientific structures ever conceived. Consisting of hundreds of thousands of equations and running on supercomputers capable of trillions of operations per second, they chart the evolution of past and future climates across thousands of years. These simulations are breathtaking in their qualitative detail and vastly ambitious in their quantitative exactitude. However, their progress has recently been challenged by the very size and complexity of the models, factors that are also paralleled in the communities of scientists that build them. This complex co-evolution of computers and scientific communities gives us insight into the promise and limits of sciences driven by exponential increases in computing power.
ISSN:0160-9327
1873-1929
DOI:10.1016/j.endeavour.2006.01.008