For more information, please contact: Email: [email protected]Website: www.doe.science.gov Dr. William F. Brinkman, Director of the Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy "We need to further improve our understanding about the impacts of climate change. We need to move from global models operating on century-long time scales to models that reliably capture regional conditions on the scale of a few decades." T HE O FFICE OF S CIENCE R ECOGNIZES
Transcript
For more information, please contact:Email: [email protected]: www.doe.science.gov
Dr. William F. Brinkman, Director of the Office of Science,
U.S. Department of Energy
"We need to further improve our understanding about the impacts
of climate change. We need to move from global models
operating on century-long time scales to models that reliably
capture regional conditions on the scale of a few decades."
The Office Of Science RecOgnizeS
Earth Day
Scientists have been observing and recording natural phenomena for centuries. These include measurements of temperatures around the world that change from place to place, and over time. As technology and tools have improved, measurements have increased in precision and accuracy. Today we are focused on moving from global models operating on century-long time scales to models that reliably capture regional conditions on the scale of a few decades.
Over the past 150 years, a rise in global surface temperatures has been noted.Many scientists have attributed most of this warming to contributions of carbon dioxide from human activities. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the Earth’s atmosphere causing the planet to warm. If this warming trend continues, it could affect global sea level, agricultural productivity, shifts in precipitation patterns, and more.
To understand the long-term changes in climate, scientists input observational data like precipitation, temperature, pressure, ice sheets, and atmospheric composition and into quantitative models. Most models include dynamic effects and study the land-ocean-atmosphere as a coupled system to simulate future climate conditions. DOE has joined forces with other government agencies to take climate modeling to the next level.
Due to their complexity and the need to include the best scientific knowledge, climate models require very powerful and fast computers to produce the simulations. The Office of Science maintains several supercomputing facilities that are available for open science around the world. These include Jaguar, Intrepid and Franklin located at Office of Science National Laboratories.
SupercomputerS
climate prediction The Office of Science funds many areas of basic science and provides researchers with several advanced user facilities. These advance scientific research and discovery in DOE mission areas of energy, environment and national security. For more visit www.doe.science.gov
It is possible to make a few minor adjustments in your daily routine to reduce your carbon footprint:
