Climate Sciences Overview

Principles

Definition

Climate sciences is a multidisciplinary field dedicated to the study of Earth's climate system, encompassing its past, present, and future states. It integrates principles from physics, chemistry, oceanography, and other physical sciences, utilizing observational data, modeling, and analysis to investigate natural and anthropogenic influences on climate, understand climate change dynamics, and assess impacts.

Ontological type

Modeling Approaches

Key Processes

Core Subfields

Key developments

Key Figures

Global-to-Regional Modeling era

Eugenia Kalnay [1] was a central figure in the Global-to-Regional Modeling era, with affiliations at the University of California, Los Angeles [3] and ETH Zurich [4]. Eugenia Kalnay [1] led the NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project [5], a unified reanalysis framework that enabled systematic intercomparison and evaluation across climate models in this era. John S. Woollen [2] is recognized here for his role as a co-author of the NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project [5], a cornerstone data product of this era. The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project [5] provided the foundation for regional downscaling and multi-scale projections, strengthening climate assessment in this era, with Woollen [2] contributing to its development.

Standardization and Ensemble Integration era

During this era, Phil Jones and Chris Folland at the Hadley Centre led data standardization efforts, refining the HadCRUT product and homogenization procedures to enable robust cross-decadal comparisons. Graham Meehl of NCAR steered the CMIP3 multi-model ensemble and coordinated intercomparison experiments that formed the backbone for model validation and uncertainty quantification. Peter Stott of the UK Met Office Hadley Centre and collaborators advanced coordinated modeling experiments and attribution studies that exploited standardized datasets and ensemble diagnostics. Reto Knutti, along with other ensemble researchers, advanced methods for quantifying internal variability and model spread within standardized intercomparison protocols in this period.

Ensemble Risk Synthesis era

Sandrine Bony [1], affiliated with Université Paris Cité [3] and Sorbonne Université [4] during this era, is a key figure in ensemble risk synthesis. Her key contribution in this era is the Overview of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) experimental design and organization [7], which standardized multi-model experiments and thereby enabled cross-model risk assessments that are central to ensemble synthesis. Björn Stevens [2], affiliated with University of Washington [5] and Princeton University [6], is a leading figure in climate model practices during this era. Like Bony, Stevens co-authored the CMIP6 overview paper [7], contributing to the standardization and orchestration of multi-model experiments that underpin ensemble-based risk synthesis and policy-relevant climate risk assessments.