climate modelling

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climate modelling The construction of mathematical descriptions of the general circulation of the global atmosphere for the purpose of predicting future climates. Because of their complexity, such models can be made and manipulated only with the largest, fastest, and most powerful computers and, even then, certain phenomena (e.g. cloud formation and precipitation, which occur on scales smaller than the models can accommodate, and the relationship between oceanic heat transport and the atmosphere, which is not well understood) must be greatly simplified or described by simple assumptions. See global warming and greenhouse effect’.

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