Planet Earth is more than a giant rock in space. Our planet has an atmosphere and oceans, it has sea ice and ice sheets, and it has huge land masses with trees and marshes. This is the Earth system. Climate on Earth is all about how the energy from the sun moves within and between different parts of the Earth system.
Join us on a tour through the Earth’s climate – from the atmosphere, oceans and ice, to scientists who use climate models to better understand our home in space.
An Earth system model is like a laboratory where you can explore the Earth and compare your result with the observed situation. Several model experiments are conducted to see how the system is best represented, and experts from a long list of disciplines take part. Here we present some of the scientists and their experiments.
Volcanoes are rarely included in simulations of future climate, because eruptions cannot be predicted. Ingo Bethke used records of past volcanic eruptions from ice cores to insert a range of plausible volcanic events into future climate model projections.
Read more here.
Imagine being at sea in the high north winter time, and suddenly be captured by strong winds, icing and heavy snowfall. There are tales of storms appearing out of nowhere, of a whole fleet of fishermen never coming home. Polar lows are still hard to forecast.
Oskar Landgren models polar lows and their appearance in future climates.
Read more here.
– How sensitive are wetland methane emissions to changes in temperature and precipitation? This is an important question we need answer to get the model right, says Rona L. Thompson.
Thompson is working on inverse modelling for methane emissions in the high latitudes over the past decade.
Read more here.
Over the sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctica, snow drifts off the ice and into the ocean. Does drifting snow lead to more or less sea ice?
Jens Boldingh Debernard experiments by turning snow drift on and off in the ice module of the Earth system model.
Read more here.
Would you think that looking at a single leaf would have an effect on how you look at global climate?
Hanna Lee looks at individual leaves and sees the important role they play in their surroundings and the way in which we decide to use our land.
Read more here.
Inger Helene Karset uses climate models to study the effect of aerosols and clouds. An eruption from a volcano in 2014 allowed her to compare the clouds in the models with clouds in the real world.
Read more here.
In 2081–2100, global mean surface temperatures are likely to be 0.3–4.8 degrees higher than in 1986–2005. This is the conclusion from the IPCCs fifth assessment report. The uncertainty in the projections may seem disturbingly large for anyone trying to plan ahead. In reality, the span is also a good thing. It means that many aspects of the physical world have been taken into account, as well as different scenarios for how society may develop. The largest contribution to uncertainty is human behavior.
Climate research institutes around the world have their own climate models. Why? Any Earth system model is a simplification of the real world, and the researchers have to choose how to prioritize and perform these simplifications. By running all of these models, the collective results provide a better overview of the world than any single model could to.
Read more about how climate scientists cooperate when running model experiments here.
Modeling how human beings behave is not easy. How can we know the most likely energy mix and distribution of wealth in 2074? We cannot. Instead, the CMIP5 and CMIP6 models are run several times, each time with a different increase in the greenhouse effect.
Read more about climate model scenarios here.
NorESM is the Norwegian Earth System Model. Read more about it here.
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Which of these cloud types are found at the highest altitude?
Which gas makes up most of the atmosphere?
Correct! Nitrogen makes up 78 % of the air surrounding us.
What is the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere?
What are the five main land use types?
Which has the lowest albedo, a field of crops or a dark forest – and why?
What two cycles does the biogeochemistry element of the land model focus on?
Which way does humans effect land use?
What led to 1816 being termed “the year without summer”?
What is the earth system model being developed in Norway called?
Which wavelengths of the light are scattered most by molecules in the atmosphere?
How high is the heat capacity of water, compared to air?
How does the Coriolis effect influence ocean currents?
What determines the density of sea water?
What creates tides?
What is a polar low?
How does snow affect the radiation balance of a darker, underlying surface?
How will rising temperatures affect methane emissions?
Volcanic eruptions add aerosols to the atmosphere. How does this influence clouds?
At what stage does snow have the highest albedo?
If all the ice on Earth melted, how much would the sea level rise?
Why does sea ice float?
Can water from melted sea ice be used as drinking water?
What was the Maunder minimum?
Which are the most important greenhouse gases in the atmosphere?
Which three terms describe the main orbital cycles that change the way the Earth moves around the sun?
What does the term eccentricity describe?
Explore the Earth System is a virtual exhibition of the climate system as seen by climate modelers.
The exhibition has been produced by EVA – Earth system modelling of climate Variations in the Anthropocene – a nationally coordinated collaborative research project funded by the Research Council of Norway. Text contributions: Elizabeth Farmer, Gudrun Sylte and Ellen Viste.
Consortium
Coordinators:
Geophysical Institute at the University of Bergen (UiB)
Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (BCCR)
NORCE
Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre (NERSC)
Norwegian Meteorological Institute (met.no)
Department of Geosciences at the University of Oslo (UiO)
Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU)
Center for International Climate and Environmental Research (CICERO)
Contact
Explore the Earth System website
Gudrun Sylte
Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research
e-mail: gudrun.sylte@uib.no
EVA website: www.uib.no/eva
EVA project leader
Prof. Dr. Christoph Heinze
University of Bergen, Geophysical Institute, Box 7803, 5020 Bergen, Norway
Phone: +47 55589844
e-mail: christoph.heinze@uib.no
EVA project co-leader
Prof. Dr. Trond Iversen
Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Oslo, Norway
e-mail: trond.iversen@met.no