Climate Change Lesson 7 : Climate Models Making Global Predictions

Climate Wizard

Developed through collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, The University of Washington, and The University of Southern Mississippi, the Climate Wizard enables technical and non-technical audiences alike to easily and intuitively access leading climate change information and visualize the impacts anywhere on Earth. The first generation of this web-based program allows the user to choose a state or country and see both the climate change that has occurred to date and the climate change that is predicted to occur. Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://www.climatewizard.org/

FASTCLIMATE

FASTCLIMATE is a global model designed for fast web-based interactive experiments. The model simulates the major climate-related processes on Earth, with special emphasis on polar features such as snow cover and sea ice. The model is intended to be used as a “toy” for use by students in an interactive learning environment, but there is learning curve for its use. The FASTCLIMATE parameters are tuned to simulate today’s climate but these tuned values may not be valid for other climate scenarios. Retrieved June 20, 2018, from http://www.met.nps.edu/~psguest/polarmet/clichange/interact.html

Global Change Research Explorer

Sponsored by Exploratorium, this website explores scientific data relating to the atmosphere, the oceans, the areas covered by ice and snow, and the living organisms in all these domains. It provides information about how scientists study natural phenomena, how researchers gather evidence, test theories, and come to conclusions. Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://www.exploratorium.edu/climate/

Global Surface Temperature Analysis

The basic GISS temperature analysis scheme was defined in the late 1970s by James Hansen when a method of estimating global temperature change was needed for comparison with one-dimensional global climate models. Graphs and tables are updated around the 10th of every month on this site. Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/

Great Lake Climate Scenarios

How might the climate of the Great Lakes region change in the future and what are the implications for agriculture and tourism? To address this question, the Pileus Project developed climate scenarios at local spatial and daily temporal scales. These scenarios describe future potential climate conditions. Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://www.pileus.msu.edu/climate/

Highways and Climate Change

Projected increases in annual and seasonal temperatures in various regions of the United States are found at this U.S. Department of Transportation site. Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hep/climate/climate_effects/effects08.cfm

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

The IPCC has been established to assess scientific, technical, and socioeconomic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts, and options for adaptation and mitigation. There is a section of the site with graphics and presentations about climate change. Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://www.ipcc.ch/

IPCC Emissions Scenarios Lesson

The Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University has a series of climate change lessons that can be downloaded. Lesson 7 focuses on the IPCC Emissions Scenarios. Among the other topics are the Vostok Ice Core and sea level changes. Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://www.ipcc-data.org/cgi-bin/ddcvis/gcmcf Retrieved June 20, 2018, from http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/sres/emission/index.php?idp=0https://camelclimatechange.org/index.html

NASA’s Global Climate Change

At this National Aeronautics and Space Administration site, students can view movies on the Earth’s energy balance and explore the climatic and environmental conditions found in four different regions of the world. Possible consequences of a prolonged temperature increase are provided for each region. A section on “vital signs of the planet” tracks changes. Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://climate.nasa.gov/

Special Report on Emissions Scenarios

This is the definitive IPCC document that presents climate scenarios for the future. Retrieved June 20, 2018, from http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/emission/index.htm

Teaching with Data, Simulations and Models

Links at this website provide a portal to a variety of resources that could be used in climate change education. Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/data_models/index.html

To What Degree? Climate Change Videos

This collection of video segments from the National Science Foundation features more than 50 leading climate researchers discussing climate change. Segments include “How do we know the Earth is warming?” and “What does carbon dioxide have to do with global warming?” Other clips provide information on topics such as the water cycle, recent predictions, and climate modeling. Click on “Meet the Experts” for biographies of the scientists. Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/degree/