A. Tompkins, ICTP
Lesson number 11 (A.Tompkins)
Climate models
The teacher gives an overview of climate models. In the modelling of the atmosphere, we assume that the behaviour of interest is as if the matter were continuous. We ignore the molecular structure. Climate and numerical weather prediction models are constructed using five fundamental set of equations: (1) the equations of motion, that give the rate of change of he velocity vector in relation to density, pressure, Coriolis force, gravity and frictional forces; (2) the equations of state; (3) the thermodynamic equation; (4) the mass balance equation; (5) the water balance equation. The equation set is not solvable analitically but we need a numerical integration method to solve the equations. In the final part of the lesson the teacher introduces the parametrization problem, which plays an important role in climate modelling.
