National Center for Computational Sciences » Assessing Global Climate Response of the NCAR-CCSM3: CO2 Sensitivity and Abrupt Climate Change

Assessing Global Climate Response of the NCAR-CCSM3: CO₂ Sensitivity and Abrupt Climate Change

PI: Zhengyu Liu, University of Wisconsin–Madison

The primary goal of this project is to perform the first synchronously coupled transient ocean/ atmosphere/dynamic vegetation general circulation model simulation of the past 21,000 years using the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate System Model (CCSM3). This experiment addresses two fundamental questions on future climate changes: (1) what is the sensitivity of the climate system to the change of greenhouse gases, notably CO₂ and (2) how does the climate system exhibit abrupt changes on decadal-centennial time scales?