Climate modeller

A climate modeller is a person who designs, develops, implements, tests, maintains or exploits climate models. These models, in turn, are used to understand the climate of the Earth (sometimes of other planets), to help analyse or interpret past and current measurements and observations, or to predict the evolution of the climate.

How one becomes a climate modeller

Climate modelling is intrinsically an interdisciplinary field, as climate diagnosis, analysis and prognosis require a wide range of specialists in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Solving some of the current climate problems requires substantial computing resources, so climate modellers heavily rely on high-performance computing, networking, and telecommunications, as well as database management technologies. The initialization or the verification of climate models relies on laboratory, field, airborne and spaceborne measurements. In particular, specialists in remote sensing are providing essential inputs for climate modelling.

Thus it is fair to say that the various specialists who contribute to climate modelling are scientists, and that a strong background is required in one (or more) of the fields mentioned above. A few universities deliver undergraduate degrees in atmospheric sciences, but it is more likely that you will have to complete your first degree in one of the basic sciences, and then proceed to a more focussed specialisation in climate modelling as part of your post-graduate studies.

Where climate modellers work

There are three major types of institutions where a climate modeller may be found:

* In local meteorological service: most national weather services have at least a climatology section.

* In local university, if there is a department that deals with any one of the following fields: atmospheric sciences, meteorology, climatology, or geography, amongst others.

* In national or international research laboratories specialising in this field, such as the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR, in Boulder, Colorado, USA), the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL, in Princeton, New Jersey, USA), the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research (in Exeter, UK), or the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, to name but a few. The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), hosted by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), coordinates research activities on climate modelling worldwide.

Besides contacting these scientists in their working environment, one may also encounter them at one of the major scientific gatherings that take place regularly, where they expose their latest findings and exchange their views on current topics of interest. Professional organisations such as the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the American Geophysical Union (AGU), or the European Geosciences Union (EGU), amongst many others, organise regular meetings that include climate modeling sessions.

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