Challenges in Earth System Modelling: Approaches and Applications

Earth system modeling has taken on increasing importance over the past several years. These models are being used to address an increasing number of environmental and global change problems of societal concern. Perhaps most commonly known is the application to possible greenhouse-gas induced warming. Other compelling problems include the climatic effects of land use changes, aerosols (including sulfate emissions, and smoke from biomass burning), changing trace gas fluxes, interactions and feedbacks with the global carbon cycle and the impacts of changing nutrient fluxes to Earths ecosystems. While originally based on general circulation models of the atmospheric component of climate, over the years the models have expanded to include oceanic circulation, land and sea ice, the full biosphere, atmospheric chemistry, and biogeochemical cycles (such as carbon, sulfur, oxygen and iron).