Modeling the Earth's Climate
As part of the EOS Interdisciplinary Study, Global Water Cycle: Extension Across the Earth Sciences, research on the role of water in climate dynamics is being conducted using a variety of dynamic and diagnostic modeling tools. The aim of these studies is to improve the physical basis for parameterizing moist processes in models of the global water cycle, since water plays an integral role in regulating Earth's heat and energy budget and biophysical process rates. In addition to prognostic and diagnostic modeling, data sets have been generated for the purpose of evaluation, initialization, and forcing the models. Improvement of the representation of water processes in climate models will certainly be needed if they are to be useful as diagnostic tools in understanding and predicting climate variability and climate trends. Water and its flux and changes of phase through the climate system provide a large part of the driving force for atmospheric and oceanic motion, and the delivery of water by the atmosphere is likely the most important part of the climate system's interaction with the biosphere.