People power predicts climate
27 January 2005
95,000 people have contributed to the world's largest climate prediction experiment, by running climate models on their computers. Now scientists analysing the results say rises in global temperature might be higher than expected. Antenna plugs in to the story...
This work was published in Nature on 27 January 2005.
Image: climateprediction.net
Many human activities release greenhouse gases, which trap heat around the Earth and warm the planet up. Climate models give information on the impact of greenhouse gases on global temperature.
'It's hugely difficult to create accurate models. We use the Met Office's complex model that includes many factors like rainfall, cloud cover, and humidity. By running many different versions of the model we can be more confident in our predictions.'
David Stainforth, climate scientist, Oxford University
David Stainforth, climate scientist, Oxford University
The results show it's tougher to tell how sensitive the climate is to increases in greenhouse gases than we first thought.
'It's like turning up the hot tap in a shower. You know it'll get hotter but by how much depends on how sensitive the system is to an increase. And we won't know how much trouble we're in for several decades because the oceans are absorbing heat!'
David Stainforth
David Stainforth
David Stainforth, climate scientist, Oxford University
The processing power of thousands of people's computers adds up to over 8000 years of computing time to run climate prediction models - so scientists can get results faster.
Here are more projects that put your computer's power to use while it's idle.
Here are more projects that put your computer's power to use while it's idle.