The
nation's collection of climate models should advance substantially to deliver
more detailed, smaller scale climate projections, says a new report from the
National Research Council. To meet this
need, the report calls for these assorted climate models to take a more
integrated path and use a common software infrastructure while adding regional
detail, new simulation capabilities, and new approaches for collaborating with
their user community.
From
farmers deciding which crops to plant next season, to mayors preparing for
possible heat waves, to insurance companies assessing future flood risks, an
array of stakeholders from the public and private sectors rely on and use
climate information. With changes in
climate and weather, however, past weather data are no longer adequate
predictors of future extremes. Advanced
modeling capabilities could potentially provide useful predictions and
projections of extreme environments, said the committee that wrote the
report. Over the past several decades,
enormous advances have been made in developing reliable climate models, but
significant progress is still required to deliver climate information at local
scales that users desire.