GLOBAL CLIMATE MODELS IN THE CLASSROOM: TOOLS FOR EXPLORING THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY POLICIES

Global climate models (GCMs) are the primary tool used by the research community to evaluate 21st century climate change. They are also the primary means by which government and industry will assess the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of proposed policies to decrease fossil fuel burning or that reduce greenhouse gas emissions by sequestering carbon before it reaches the atmosphere. There are many scenarios for how greenhouse gases and other air pollutants will respond as certain policies are implemented and then there are even more possible climate impact outcomes that follow from those scenarios. GCMs will be the tools used to simulate and assess all of these things before and during implementation and they will provide the forecast data that will guide society's plans to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

During the past several years the Educational Global Climate Modeling (EdGCM) Project has worked to develop a comprehensive software toolkit that combines one of NASA's 3D global climate models, a database that organizes simulation input and output, a graphical user interface, scientific visualization software, and web-publishing tools. The result is an integrated software suite that runs on standard desktop computers (PCs and Macs) and can be used in the teaching and learning of climate modeling and climate science for both specialists and non-specialists. Since our first release in 2005 we have found science educators interested in climate modeling come from a broad range of disciplines and span grade levels from middle schools to graduate schools. We also find that these advanced capabilities are of broad interest to a wide variety of researchers whose professional fields rely on climate modeling, but who do not necessarily have access to the expertise or GCMs from the major climate modeling institutes. Finally, tools like EdGCM seem to help demystify, for the general public, the complex climate science that is crucial in the development and adoption of international climate change policies in the first place.