For more accurate forecasting, climate models also need to accurately map small, local thunderstorm cells. (Photograph: Juergen Freund / Nature Picture Library / Science Photo Library)
For more accurate forecasting, climate models also need to accurately map small, local thunderstorm cells. (Photograph: Juergen Freund / Nature Picture Library / Science Photo Library) Heavier rain, longer droughts, melting glaciers: climate change has a dramatic impact on the global water cycle. For Christoph Schär, ETH Zurich's Professor of Climate and Water Cycle, "global warming" is not quite accurate when it comes to describing the driver of climate change. "A better term would be 'climate humidification'," he explains. "Most of the solar energy that reaches the Earth serves to evaporate water and thereby drives the hydrological cycle." Properly accounting for the implications of this is the most challenging task of all for climate modellers. In order to build a global climate model, grid points spaced around 50 to 100 kilometres apart are used. This scale is too coarse to map small-scale, local thunderstorm cells.
TO READ THIS ARTICLE, CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT
And extend your reading, free of charge and with no commitment.
