Co-creating Useful and Usable Climate Intervention Simulations
Logistics
Terms You May See In This Workshop...
| Term | Definition |
| Anomaly | the deviation of a variable from its long-term mean climatology. |
| Attribution | in relation to climate impacts, attribution is the process of evaluating the relative contributions of multiple causal factors (including anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions) to a change in a variable |
| Climate Sensitivity | a feature of the climate system that describes the temperature change associated with a given perturbation to the climate system. Often used as shorthand for 'equilibrium climate sensitivity', which is the globally averaged surface warming after the climate system has reached a steady state (generally over thousands of years) in response to an instantaneous doubling in the concentration of atmospheric CO2. |
| Climatology | a statistical description of the climate system. Examples include the long-term mean and the long-term mean annual cycle. |
| Codesign | Co-design is a collaborative approach to research that involves people from different disciplines, including end-users, working together to design research and desired outcomes |
| Downscaling | the process by which finer-resolution climate information is derived from coarse-resolution model output. |
| Earth System Model | a model that simulates interactions between the physical, chemical, and biological processes of the global climate system |
| Ensemble | a set of simulations from multiple climate models, or multiple simulations using the same model with different initial conditions, that are subject to the same external forcing. Individual simulations are called ensemble members. |
| Model Intercomparison Project | an international research effort that brings together multiple climate (or other) modelling groups from around the world to collaborate on a common research question using standardised approaches. |
| Model Skill | the ability of model outputs to match observations. In the context of ESMs, assessments of model skill depend on comparisons of historical model runs against observational or reanalysis datasets. |
| Parameterization | a simplified representation in climate models of processes that operate at scales too small for the model to resolve. These simplified representations rely on relationships between unresolved and resolved processes. |
| Preindustrial | the time before anthropogenic activities had a major effect on the climate. This may be defined in different ways. From a climate modelling perspective, preindustrial model simulations cover the time before 1850. For practical reasons the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report refers to the preindustrial as a baseline period (1850–1900) against which recent and future climate states are compared, albeit recognising that the Industrial Revolution and the initiation of associated anthropogenic impacts on the climate pre-date this period. |
| Prediction | model outputs that rely on knowledge of the past and present to develop an expectation of future conditions (potentially including an estimate of uncertainty). A prediction is what we expect to happen. ESM outputs constitute projections not predictions. |
| Projection | model outputs that rely on prespecified assumptions about the future (potentially including an estimate of uncertainty). A projection is what we expect to happen under a given course of action (and/or other assumptions about the future). ESM outputs constitute projections not predictions |
| Radiative Forcing | the difference between the amount of energy entering and leaving the atmosphere (W.m–2 ). Radiative forcing is caused by natural and anthropogenic factors, the latter including effects of changing greenhouse gas emissions. The greater the (positive) radiative forcing, the more climate warms. |
| Stakeholder | a person or an organisation that has a legitimate interest in a project or entity, or would be affected by a particular action or policy |