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Although some of the world's most powerful computers are dedicated to the task, weather modelling is such a complex task that we still cannot model the whole climate system in detail. Instead, models are specialised to one area. Atmosphere models contain a 3D model of the entire atmosphere, modelling points every few hundred kilometres.They save computer time by regarding the land and sea as a simple flat surface of varying temperature. |
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Ocean models are used for predicting sea ice and temperature. They model the world's oceans in 3D, but simplify the atmosphere. The temperature of the sea is a major factor in the weather. For smaller areas, there are regional climate models, which work using data on a much smaller grid. This enables the models to include local geographical features like mountains, which larger models tend to miss. |
Regional climate model image courtesy of 1996 Data Explorer conference (Click to view as mpeg video 296K) |
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