Climate Modeling

This program aims to develop global process-resolving models to help quantify the roles of climate feedbacks in anthropogenic climate change. Abrupt and extreme climate changes from anthropogenic warming pose some of the greatest risks to society and the environment. Understanding of the complex interactions involved with feedbacks is critical.

Highlights

Project

MULTISCALE Methods for Accurate, Efficient, and Scale-Aware Earth System Models

MULTISCALE is a Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) Earth System Modeling project, begun in July 2012 and running through July 2017, with the primary goal of producing better climate models to serve as the scientific tools and predictive tools that will address the needs of both the climate sciences and policy-oriented communities.

Program Overview

Questions to solve through improved modeling: How do the hydrological cycle, and water resources, interact with the climate system on local to global scales? How do biogeochemical cycles interact with global climate change? How do rapid changes in cryospheric systems interact with the climate system? How do short-term variations in natural and anthropogenic radiatively active atmospheric constituents interact with natural variability and contribute to regional and global environmental change?

Climate Modeling is one of three Programs within the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area’s Climate and Carbon Sciences Program Area. The key sponsors of this research are the DOE-BER Climate and Earth System Modeling Program and DOE’s Office of Advanced Scientific Computing.

Featured Projects

News & Events

EESA Faculty Scientist Shares Forest Insights Relevant to Wildfires with California State Assembly

April 12, 2018

Jeff Chambers, faculty scientist within the Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division at Berkeley Lab, provided testimony during a recent informational hearing of the California State Assembly focused on the impact of climate change on wildfire risk. Chambers was among a number of subject matter experts called upon to share knowledge relevant to the lawmakers’ consideration…

Assessing the Impact of Hurricanes on Puerto Rico’s Forests

April 6, 2018

This map of Puerto Rico shows highest forest damage and tree mortality impact areas in with darker tones of red indicating more intense forest disturbance as tree mortality and crown damage. Grey areas represent non-forested areas or areas with cloud cover. Building on methods they used to assess the impact of hurricanes such as…

EESA Scientists Are First to Directly Measure Methane’s Increasing Greenhouse Effect at the Earth’s Surface

April 4, 2018

Scientists have directly measured the increasing greenhouse effect of methane at the Earth’s surface for the first time. A research team from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) tracked a rise in the warming effect of methane — one of the most important greenhouse gases for the Earth’s atmosphere — over a…

UC Berkeley Undergraduate Student Is Key to Collaborative Project for EESA and NERSC

March 26, 2018

This past December the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union got off to a surprising start. Amid rare freeze warnings and snowfall for areas in and around New Orleans, hundreds of the nearly 25,000 conference attendees expecting to escape wintry weather elsewhere were met with flight cancellations and delays. Another surprise came after UC…

Berkeley Lab Researchers Use Remote Sensing Techniques to Assess Hurricane Impact on Trees

March 5, 2018

Building on methods they used to assess the impact of hurricanes such as Katrina, Gustav, and Rita on forests and tree mortality, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have produced a rapid mapping of the disturbance intensity across Puerto Rico’s forests with the help of Google Earth Engine.

EESA Research Shows Impact of Environmental Changes on Microbes in Arctic Soils

February 23, 2018

New Berkeley Lab research published in the journal Nature Communications Thursday explores the impact of a changing climate on Arctic ecosystems with permanently frozen soils. As the Arctic continues to warm at about twice the rate of the rest of the world, scientists expect these frozen soils known as permafrost to thaw, activating microbes capable…

Earth Systems and Society

Climate & Atmosphere Processes