Research on climate impacts on human health and natural resources, with a focus on vulnerable communities. Supports community-based solutions by providing research, models & databases, capacity building, grants & outreach.
Climate research builds on the scientific knowledge of Earth systems developed over centuries, and uses modern computing power to model complex simulations. It includes the study of the atmosphere, oceans and land surface (the cryosphere), and the underlying physical, chemical and biological processes that affect climate. It also looks at past, present and projected future climate change.
Detailed observations of temperature, wind speed and precipitation allow scientists to understand how the climate system operates. These measurements are made around the globe with thermometers and barometers, and with satellites, airplanes and ships. Scientists collect data on other variables as well, such as sea ice cover and carbon dioxide levels. These observations are combined into global temperature datasets. These are used to build mathematical models of the atmosphere, oceans, land and ice (the cryosphere), built on accepted laws of physics and the latest understanding of the physical and chemical processes affecting climate. These are then run on powerful computers to calculate how much warming is likely to occur, and what feedback processes will amplify the changes.
A key challenge is detecting changes in the data, which require statistical estimates of how likely the observed changes are to have occurred by chance alone. For example, natural factors like volcanic eruptions and solar activity could cause some of the observed changes in temperature. By looking at other observations, such as the patterns of ice cores or records of air pollution, scientists can test whether a particular change is due to external forces.