1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:18,900 36C3 preroll music 2 00:00:19,738 --> 00:00:23,635 Herald: ... so I'm looking forward and I hope you are, too. I am looking forward to 3 00:00:23,635 --> 00:00:29,920 be told the difference between.. laughs ... we will all be told the 4 00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:34,730 difference between an input model and a climate model, and we are going to be told 5 00:00:34,730 --> 00:00:38,981 this difference by karlabyrinth. There you go. 6 00:00:38,981 --> 00:00:48,407 applause 7 00:00:48,407 --> 00:00:55,079 karlabyrinth: Thank you. Hello and welcome, everyone. I would like to see my 8 00:00:55,079 --> 00:01:07,260 slides. Are the slides ...? Ah, OK. laughs nice. So welcome, everyone, to my 9 00:01:07,260 --> 00:01:13,700 talk about Climate Modeling - the science behind climate reports. First of all, I 10 00:01:13,700 --> 00:01:19,240 will shortly introduce myself and what I do. I work at the UFZ. That's the 11 00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:25,200 Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig and I work for the ESM 12 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:32,390 project, which is short for 'advanced earth system' modelling capacity. I am also a PhD 13 00:01:32,390 --> 00:01:39,570 student at the University of Potsdam and I am part of the developer team for the 14 00:01:39,570 --> 00:01:45,400 middle scale hydrologic model, which is an impact model. And I'm also a scientist for 15 00:01:45,400 --> 00:01:54,210 future and an artist. So what this talk is about? This talk is partitioned into three 16 00:01:54,210 --> 00:01:59,420 sections, mainly. First is the introduction where I will introduce some 17 00:01:59,420 --> 00:02:05,600 nomenclature like what is weather, what is climate and what we can say about 18 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:10,971 predictions. For example, why we can't tell the weather in three years but we can 19 00:02:10,971 --> 00:02:16,560 say something about the climate, and what are climate models. Then the second part 20 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:20,760 will be the longest, the science behind warming graphs. I will show you a graph 21 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:26,940 that's typically shown when people tell you about climate change, and I will 22 00:02:26,940 --> 00:02:35,930 explain that graph in detail and what is behind it. The third part would be 23 00:02:35,930 --> 00:02:39,750 installing an impact model to your local PC if there is time. If there is no time I 24 00:02:39,750 --> 00:02:46,871 will skip that. And in the end, there is, as always, a summary and conclusion. So 25 00:02:46,871 --> 00:02:54,280 starting with the introduction. Weather is defined as the physical state of the 26 00:02:54,280 --> 00:03:01,180 atmosphere at a given time whilst climate is averaged weather. Most of the time a 27 00:03:01,180 --> 00:03:07,170 time period of 30 years is taken for that averaging but also other time periods 28 00:03:07,170 --> 00:03:14,970 could be taken. So, while, the main question was, while we 29 00:03:14,970 --> 00:03:18,389 are not able to predict whether at a specific date in a 30 00:03:18,389 --> 00:03:24,190 decade, for example, let's say the 27th of December in 50 years or so. Why does it 31 00:03:24,190 --> 00:03:28,920 still make sense to propose general trends for the climate? That is a question that 32 00:03:28,920 --> 00:03:39,210 often arises when... and I'll answer that. So, first of all, it is about average. 33 00:03:39,210 --> 00:03:45,220 Average cloud coverage gives us information on average reflection. And 34 00:03:45,220 --> 00:03:50,870 average reflection is ... has an impact on the warmth on the earth. And the same is 35 00:03:50,870 --> 00:03:57,329 true for another scenario. For example, average precipitation - meaning rain or snow 36 00:03:57,329 --> 00:04:01,780 and temperature - has an impact on vegetation and vegetation influences the 37 00:04:01,780 --> 00:04:06,959 carbon cycle. And that again influences the warming or cooling and that has an 38 00:04:06,959 --> 00:04:11,470 influence on the ice coverage. And that, again, on the reflection. So there are 39 00:04:11,470 --> 00:04:16,620 lots of processes that are connected to each other and if we know something about 40 00:04:16,620 --> 00:04:22,390 the average of some of these physical state of the atmosphere, we can say 41 00:04:22,390 --> 00:04:31,050 something about the climate trends. So the question is, what is a climate model? And 42 00:04:31,050 --> 00:04:37,820 the AR5 defines a climate model is a numerical representation of the climate 43 00:04:37,820 --> 00:04:44,110 system. The AR5 is a source I will cite quite often. So I have one slide 44 00:04:44,110 --> 00:04:50,970 with the whole citation. It's the fifth IPCC report. IPCC is the 45 00:04:50,970 --> 00:04:57,690 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the fifth assessment report is, yeah, 46 00:04:57,690 --> 00:05:04,720 so AR5 is the abbreviation for fifth assessment report. But coming back to a 47 00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:08,949 climate model. So a climate model could, for example, be a GCM - a general 48 00:05:08,949 --> 00:05:15,349 circulation model - which is a global climate model that usually consists of an 49 00:05:15,349 --> 00:05:24,900 ocean and atmosphere circulation. An RCM is not a GCM but it's a regional climate 50 00:05:24,900 --> 00:05:30,030 model, meaning a climate model at a limited area, and mainly it has a higher 51 00:05:30,030 --> 00:05:34,610 resolution. And for it is at a limited area, that usually means that there is 52 00:05:34,610 --> 00:05:40,830 some input and output going in because it's not a closed system. And an impact 53 00:05:40,830 --> 00:05:46,900 model again has usually a higher resolution in time and space and it's not 54 00:05:46,900 --> 00:05:50,280 a climate model, but it's for simulating extreme weather events 55 00:05:50,280 --> 00:05:56,689 like floods. So if you want to build a dam or a dike and you want to know how 56 00:05:56,689 --> 00:06:02,790 high this dike or dam should be, then you would usually run an impact model that 57 00:06:02,790 --> 00:06:11,639 gives you information about water height over decades or longer or so. And then 58 00:06:11,639 --> 00:06:18,729 you would decide on the height. So this is the use for impact models. So that's for 59 00:06:18,729 --> 00:06:24,139 the introduction part. Now I come to the main part and I will start with a 60 00:06:24,139 --> 00:06:31,810 question: is it proven? Or with a climate graph. As that, I will show you a graph, a 61 00:06:31,810 --> 00:06:36,530 typical image people would show you when they address climate change. This graph 62 00:06:36,530 --> 00:06:42,650 has an x-axis with a time scale and you see it's reaching far into the future. And 63 00:06:42,650 --> 00:06:49,509 it also has three or four regions and the first region is only in the past. 64 00:06:49,509 --> 00:06:57,570 And the y-axis is the global surface temperature change, meaning how much 65 00:06:57,570 --> 00:07:05,169 degrees in Celsius or in Kelvin, if it's different it's the same, we will have in 66 00:07:05,169 --> 00:07:13,509 future or we had already. And then, you see several lines and different colors and 67 00:07:13,509 --> 00:07:21,130 with the names RCP something. And I will explain all the numbers and everything 68 00:07:21,130 --> 00:07:27,190 about that graph because it's a pretty important graph. So first of all, I will 69 00:07:27,190 --> 00:07:30,599 tell you... no, no. I will tell you something about the numbers and 70 00:07:30,599 --> 00:07:38,590 uncertainties. The uncertainties are the transparent colors behind the lines. I 71 00:07:38,590 --> 00:07:43,229 will tell you something about the representative concentration pathways, 72 00:07:43,229 --> 00:07:51,069 which is short RCP, and so it's reflecting the colors of the lines. I will tell you 73 00:07:51,069 --> 00:07:55,340 something about the source of the graphs. So where does this graph actually come 74 00:07:55,340 --> 00:08:01,759 from? So I will tell you something about the assessment report. And first of all, I 75 00:08:01,759 --> 00:08:07,129 will answer the question: is it proven or is there scientific evidence that we will 76 00:08:07,129 --> 00:08:15,599 face that climate change? So, you will see that graph quite often. First of all, I 77 00:08:15,599 --> 00:08:22,650 took a definition for proof, for scientific evidence, from Wikipedia. The 78 00:08:22,650 --> 00:08:26,830 strength of scientific evidence is generally based on the results of 79 00:08:26,830 --> 00:08:31,580 statistical analysis and the strength of scientific controls. 80 00:08:31,580 --> 00:08:37,860 Meaning, you make an experiment over and over again and you change basically some 81 00:08:37,860 --> 00:08:43,419 influences on the experiments where you want to know that this does not influence 82 00:08:43,419 --> 00:08:50,240 the output. So you can narrow it down and know what is the source of your results 83 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:56,440 and so you can prove a physical law or something. Yeah, I took this comic from 84 00:08:56,440 --> 00:09:04,010 xkcd because it's a nice... it's somehow connected. So there is a person who pulls 85 00:09:04,010 --> 00:09:09,700 a trigger and then gets struck by a bolt or some something. Something bad happens, 86 00:09:09,700 --> 00:09:16,550 for example climate change. And then, yeah, there are two scenarios. For 87 00:09:16,550 --> 00:09:23,470 example, a person usually would decide, okay, I would not pull the lever again. 88 00:09:23,470 --> 00:09:29,630 But scientists usually or more often would say, okay, maybe: Does that happen every 89 00:09:29,630 --> 00:09:38,050 time if I do so? Because yeah, that's basically how you prove something. That's 90 00:09:38,050 --> 00:09:42,880 experiments. But in case of climate change, even scientists say you shouldn't. 91 00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:47,250 Although it's pretty interesting for us from a scientific perspective. But the 92 00:09:47,250 --> 00:09:53,750 problem is we only have one earth. We cannot do this experiment very often, 93 00:09:53,750 --> 00:09:57,910 except we had a time machine. Then we could go back, but we haven't so we 94 00:09:57,910 --> 00:10:05,190 shouldn't do that experiment. And that's something scientists before, long ago in 95 00:10:05,190 --> 00:10:10,980 1957 said already: "Human beings are now carrying out a large-scale geophysical 96 00:10:10,980 --> 00:10:17,100 experiment of a kind that could not have happened in the past nor be reproduced in 97 00:10:17,100 --> 00:10:26,310 the future." So another question is, yeah, if you ask this question if it is proven 98 00:10:26,310 --> 00:10:32,320 or that it probably is not happening or so to climate deniers, they usually would 99 00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:36,940 tell you: Okay, maybe it's not happening. And the other side would take the position 100 00:10:36,940 --> 00:10:40,889 and ask you, okay, if you stand in front of a road and you want to cross the road 101 00:10:40,889 --> 00:10:45,740 and there's a car approaching very fast, would you cross that road? Because it 102 00:10:45,740 --> 00:10:52,170 could happen that the car stops or makes a U-turn or something. But well, usually it 103 00:10:52,170 --> 00:10:59,649 doesn't. And sadly, we know lots about this experiment, because it's done very 104 00:10:59,649 --> 00:11:03,600 often before. We know something about traffic, and that it's 105 00:11:03,600 --> 00:11:08,980 pretty dangerous. So let's change the factors a little so that we don't know so 106 00:11:08,980 --> 00:11:13,990 much about that situation. Let's say a cube approaches us with a high velocity on 107 00:11:13,990 --> 00:11:20,910 something that is maybe not a road. Would you still cross that something? The answer 108 00:11:20,910 --> 00:11:27,040 is you still probably wouldn't. And why wouldn't you do so although you know 109 00:11:27,040 --> 00:11:32,690 nothing about this situation? Well, you do know something. You know conservation of 110 00:11:32,690 --> 00:11:37,779 the momentum, which is a physical law you know about. So you have a situation, you 111 00:11:37,779 --> 00:11:43,050 know not so much about. You have never had an experience before, but you still are 112 00:11:43,050 --> 00:11:48,800 able to make some assumptions because you know the physical laws behind it. And 113 00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:58,139 that's basically the same we do with, in fact, in the context of climate. So we 114 00:11:58,139 --> 00:12:06,000 have, let's say, just an earth and the sun and the sun has some radiation and that 115 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:10,759 comes to the earth and gets partially reflected and the earth radiates itself 116 00:12:10,759 --> 00:12:15,930 because it has some temperature. We know something about this sun. We know the 117 00:12:15,930 --> 00:12:24,560 solar insolation. And we know parts of the light is reflected. And the factor that is 118 00:12:24,560 --> 00:12:30,060 reflected is usually called albedo. And so the reflected energy is albedo times the 119 00:12:30,060 --> 00:12:39,209 solar insulation and albedo is something about 30 percent. And we know then that 120 00:12:39,209 --> 00:12:44,980 the light that is absorbed must be all the remaining energy. So the energy of the 121 00:12:44,980 --> 00:12:51,990 surface is 1 minus albedo times the solar insolation. Then knowing Stefan-Boltzmann 122 00:12:51,990 --> 00:12:58,069 law for energy emissions where the temperature goes in to the power of four 123 00:12:58,069 --> 00:13:05,600 and with the Stefan-Boltzmann constant we can actually find find out the surface 124 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:12,970 temperature which then is derived to -19.5 degrees Celsius. Well, we know, probably 125 00:13:12,970 --> 00:13:18,850 we know, that the earth is much warmer, and that's because our model in this case, 126 00:13:18,850 --> 00:13:27,759 which is maybe a climate model, is far too simple. So we change something about that. 127 00:13:27,759 --> 00:13:37,009 We add atmosphere, and atmosphere has some interesting impact. So atmosphere has some 128 00:13:37,009 --> 00:13:42,750 trace greenhouse gases, for example CO2 but also H2O, ozone, 129 00:13:42,750 --> 00:13:52,649 methane, O2 and nitrous oxide. And these greenhouse gases reflect the radiation of 130 00:13:52,649 --> 00:14:00,779 earth back to earth, partially. Meaning the atmosphere has a transparency and this 131 00:14:00,779 --> 00:14:05,690 transparency we call t is something between 15 percent and 30 percent. So it's 132 00:14:05,690 --> 00:14:14,019 not fixed. And that's another interesting fact. The atmosphere emits energy, which 133 00:14:14,019 --> 00:14:22,569 we call j atmos, and that goes out in space and to earth and the energy that 134 00:14:22,569 --> 00:14:31,269 goes into the atmosphere is 1 minus the transparency times the energy. So we know 135 00:14:31,269 --> 00:14:35,550 two equations. The first is the energy that goes into the atmosphere also goes 136 00:14:35,550 --> 00:14:43,624 out of the atmosphere. The second is that the surface energy of the earth 137 00:14:43,624 --> 00:14:46,759 is the term we had before, 1 minus albedo times the solar 138 00:14:46,759 --> 00:14:51,879 insolation plus the one part of the energy that is reflected by the atmosphere. And 139 00:14:51,879 --> 00:14:56,750 so we have two formulas, two equations with two unknowns and with the Stefan- 140 00:14:56,750 --> 00:15:01,540 Boltzmann law from before we can derive the surface temperature, which is 15 141 00:15:01,540 --> 00:15:07,500 degrees of Celsius. And that actually is not so far from what it actually is. In 142 00:15:07,500 --> 00:15:15,060 2000 it was measured that the surface temperature is 14.5 degrees. So, I did 143 00:15:15,060 --> 00:15:23,320 this for a specific t which is 22.5 percent but when we change that t a little 144 00:15:23,320 --> 00:15:27,949 to, for example, 20 percent, so we add more CO2 because, for example, we would 145 00:15:27,949 --> 00:15:35,660 add a factory that would do carbon emissions. Then the transparency goes down 146 00:15:35,660 --> 00:15:43,019 and the temperature rises to, for example, 16.6 degrees in case of 20 percent. This 147 00:15:43,019 --> 00:15:52,960 is also a very old knowledge. So this is maybe a little much on a slide but it is 148 00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:58,079 still very interesting because it is copied directly from a paper that was 149 00:15:58,079 --> 00:16:05,399 published from Svante Arrhenius in 1896 already. And it's on the influence of 150 00:16:05,399 --> 00:16:09,879 carbon acid in the air upon the temperature of the ground. And carbon acid 151 00:16:09,879 --> 00:16:18,490 is the old term for carbon dioxide. So if we have a look to the percentage... So he 152 00:16:18,490 --> 00:16:25,959 investigated: What if we change carbon dioxide? So what is the impact of 153 00:16:25,959 --> 00:16:34,740 our behavior? Let's say carbon dioxide in our atmosphere would 154 00:16:34,740 --> 00:16:41,759 double, so would increase by a factor of 2, then the average temperature rise in 155 00:16:41,759 --> 00:16:50,209 Leipzig in December, so I choose the region for Leipzig, would be 6.1 degrees. 156 00:16:50,209 --> 00:16:55,550 Well, that's probably a little high, but what we can't see is already that 157 00:16:55,550 --> 00:17:02,050 Arrhenius back then already knew that there is a seasonal impact on 158 00:17:02,050 --> 00:17:11,800 climate... that climate change is seasonal and also spatial. So it is not just one... 159 00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:20,959 not the average temperature is the only interesting knowledge we get. So 160 00:17:20,959 --> 00:17:27,810 Arrhenius said something like the temperature in case of carbon acid doubled 161 00:17:27,810 --> 00:17:35,810 would be around four to six degrees. And the current models predict something like 162 00:17:35,810 --> 00:17:45,610 an increase of two to four degrees for that scenario. So there is maybe overlap 163 00:17:45,610 --> 00:17:55,680 already with that simple model from back then. So, then I come to the question... 164 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:59,440 a climate model represents physical laws. That's what we learned. Where do the 165 00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:05,460 uncertainties come from? So if we know all the physics laws and we would just 166 00:18:05,460 --> 00:18:09,820 calculate everything with this physics laws, why are there even uncertainties? 167 00:18:09,820 --> 00:18:13,690 And there are some reasons for that. For example, the initial conditions is one 168 00:18:13,690 --> 00:18:18,660 main source of uncertainties, meaning how is the current state of the climate system 169 00:18:18,660 --> 00:18:24,330 now? How fast does something move? Where are the clouds exactly? 170 00:18:24,330 --> 00:18:27,324 And so on. We don't know these precise initial 171 00:18:27,324 --> 00:18:33,522 conditions and therefore errors occure. Second, would be the 172 00:18:33,522 --> 00:18:41,750 resolution of a model. So the temporal and spatial step length, meaning 173 00:18:41,750 --> 00:18:47,930 we can't... always represent our climate system with differential equations 174 00:18:47,930 --> 00:18:55,370 and we approximate everything. We have not the movement of every molecule but we have 175 00:18:55,370 --> 00:19:03,250 some average on cells. And if we increase the resolution then usually the 176 00:19:03,250 --> 00:19:08,840 uncertainties go down. But sometimes they even don't for some question, for some 177 00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:12,260 questions it's better to have a lower resolution. But mostly it's better to have 178 00:19:12,260 --> 00:19:15,550 a higher. Then, truncation, so we have 179 00:19:15,550 --> 00:19:23,050 computational limits. And lack of understanding, for example, clouds. Clouds 180 00:19:23,050 --> 00:19:28,180 are not understood pretty well. And when I read the fifth assessment report, I found 181 00:19:28,180 --> 00:19:35,600 a sentence a little amusing: Climate model... Clouds in climate models 182 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:47,030 usually tend to rain too early. Yeah, so but if you know all these sources of 183 00:19:47,030 --> 00:19:52,250 uncertainty, why is there no such thing as the one best climate model? Meaning, why 184 00:19:52,250 --> 00:20:01,130 can't we go to the highest resolution and to the best... the best computer we get 185 00:20:01,130 --> 00:20:07,320 and do everything just in the best way and then we would have our best climate model? 186 00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:13,220 And there are some reasons for that. For example, the so-called dynamic core, 187 00:20:13,220 --> 00:20:19,050 including the method for differential equations or something like grids. 188 00:20:19,050 --> 00:20:25,962 For example, if we have a triangular grid or a rectangular grid. On a 189 00:20:25,962 --> 00:20:31,960 rectangular grid we usually can calculate faster but on a triangular grid 190 00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:37,740 we could, for example, increase the resolution locally. That might be 191 00:20:37,740 --> 00:20:44,940 differences. And both have advantages and disadvantages. Also, the parametrization: 192 00:20:44,940 --> 00:20:51,680 parameters in our last slide were for example the t and the albedo which will 193 00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:55,260 probably be not the final parameters because they are derived from other 194 00:20:55,260 --> 00:21:00,550 parameters, but physical laws or something are often represented by rules with 195 00:21:00,550 --> 00:21:07,430 parameters, and these parameters can be estimated. And they can be calibrated with 196 00:21:07,430 --> 00:21:11,660 different error measures. And there this is another reason for 197 00:21:11,660 --> 00:21:16,720 uncertainties and differences in climate models and then their schemes. For 198 00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:20,694 example, there are different formulations of physical processes, for example, that 199 00:21:20,694 --> 00:21:29,150 again, clouds. And last the truncation, again, we can also decide how we limit due 200 00:21:29,150 --> 00:21:37,320 to our lack of computational power. So, yeah, what do we do? We investigate all 201 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:44,220 the models we have. So there are different climate models that are representing our 202 00:21:44,220 --> 00:21:48,960 climate and we take all the models that match certain conditions - I come to that 203 00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:53,460 later - and we average the output and then we 204 00:21:53,460 --> 00:22:05,440 get a climate prediction and also that uncertainty band you see. So what climate 205 00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:12,990 models do we investigate? They are so- called coordinated GCMS. So climate models 206 00:22:12,990 --> 00:22:18,280 are compared in so-called coupled model intercomparison projects in different 207 00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:24,260 phases. These coupled model intercomparison projects are called CMIP 208 00:22:24,260 --> 00:22:34,540 4, 5 and 6. So there might have been four earlier ones. But currently, for the AR6, 209 00:22:34,540 --> 00:22:45,300 so for the sixth assessment report CMIP6 investigated. And I showed you on the 210 00:22:45,300 --> 00:22:52,930 map the research centers which took part in CMIP6, so which take part in the 6th 211 00:22:52,930 --> 00:23:00,460 assessment report. These research centers are mainly specialized research centers, 212 00:23:00,460 --> 00:23:06,770 university and metereological offices, but generally it's open for any institution to 213 00:23:06,770 --> 00:23:11,900 participate, as long as they follow a protocol for their contribution, where 214 00:23:11,900 --> 00:23:18,480 there are some rules so you cannot just do anything. These institutions 215 00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:23,350 need to produce variables for a set of defined experiments and a historical 216 00:23:23,350 --> 00:23:31,020 simulation from 1850 to present. This blue part is a link, so if you go to my slides 217 00:23:31,020 --> 00:23:37,460 afterwards, you can see these variables you need to reproduce and then you can do 218 00:23:37,460 --> 00:23:45,320 something like this. So we have a graph here again. On the x axis, we see again a 219 00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:52,370 timescale that reaches from 1850 to today. And on the y axis we again see the 220 00:23:52,370 --> 00:24:01,020 temperature anomaly or the temperature difference between.. so, exactly the 221 00:24:01,020 --> 00:24:11,440 temperature difference, so how much the earth has warmed up. We see CMIP3 and CMIP5 222 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:21,266 compared, which were the models that were investigated for the AR5. So we see a 223 00:24:21,266 --> 00:24:29,420 band. This uncertainty with the yellow and bluish and the background and then we see 224 00:24:29,420 --> 00:24:38,210 these two lines, the blue and the red one from CMIP3 and CMIP5 and then we see the 225 00:24:38,210 --> 00:24:43,760 black one. And that is what actually was observed. And we see that this differs 226 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:50,410 quite a lot. And that's due to there was only investigated the natural forces, 227 00:24:50,410 --> 00:24:54,860 meaning excluded what the human did. And if we 228 00:24:54,860 --> 00:25:01,340 also put the human forces into it, then it's quite matching. And that is the best 229 00:25:01,340 --> 00:25:09,760 kind of proof we can get. And again, I said we investigate the physical laws and 230 00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:19,360 the physical laws were actually results of scientific experiments. And so, yeah, 231 00:25:19,360 --> 00:25:30,250 there's this kind of proof. And yeah. So maybe a little addition. There are also 232 00:25:30,250 --> 00:25:40,610 other coordinated model intercomparisons projects that are outside of the IPCC and 233 00:25:40,610 --> 00:25:45,890 so the ones that are inside the IPCC where the scientific focus is on a 234 00:25:45,890 --> 00:25:53,170 subtopic, on something like land surface for example (and that's what I do). And 235 00:25:53,170 --> 00:26:01,890 they're also published work outside from IPCC. So back to the graph. 236 00:26:01,890 --> 00:26:10,380 We talked about the part: Is it proven? And I hope I convinced you that it is. And 237 00:26:10,380 --> 00:26:16,820 now I will talk about the sources of the graph. So I talked a lot about the IPCC. 238 00:26:16,820 --> 00:26:26,970 The IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, publishes reports. So for 239 00:26:26,970 --> 00:26:31,570 example, the 5th assessment report and what you see here is part of the cover. 240 00:26:31,570 --> 00:26:41,160 But there have been 4 ones before, as the name 5th suggests, the first assessment 241 00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:51,440 report FAR was published in 1990. The second SAR in 1995. Then there was the TAR 242 00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:56,380 and then for the 4th assessment report they changed the name scheme for some 243 00:26:56,380 --> 00:27:03,590 reason to AR4 and then there was AR5, which I'm talking about. The IPCC consists 244 00:27:03,590 --> 00:27:09,410 of several working groups, including Working Group 1 to 3, providing the 245 00:27:09,410 --> 00:27:14,530 assessment reports and I mainly focus on the assessment report from a working group 246 00:27:14,530 --> 00:27:20,260 1, which investigates the scientific aspects of the climate system and climate 247 00:27:20,260 --> 00:27:28,080 change. But there is also a working group investigating on vulnerability and 248 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:33,950 economic impact. And the third one on the options of limiting greenhouse gas 249 00:27:33,950 --> 00:27:44,290 emissions and others. So I totally show you a history of the climate models. In 250 00:27:44,290 --> 00:27:50,710 something like the 70s, climate models were investigated where there was just an 251 00:27:50,710 --> 00:27:56,640 atmosphere, the sun, rain - clouds were missing - and CO2 emissions. And 252 00:27:56,640 --> 00:28:02,990 I hope you believe that the sun is behind the atmosphere and not in this atmosphere. 253 00:28:02,990 --> 00:28:09,780 In the mid 80s there was prescribed ice added and already clouds and land 254 00:28:09,780 --> 00:28:16,550 surfaces and yeah, you see a nice mountain. But actually in that time the resolution 255 00:28:16,550 --> 00:28:25,150 was so low that the Alps only had one or two grid cells, meaning that was not so 256 00:28:25,150 --> 00:28:33,220 much about land surface, but it was added. And for the first assessment report there 257 00:28:33,220 --> 00:28:39,390 was a swamp ocean added, meaning an ocean was added, but it was had no depth. For 258 00:28:39,390 --> 00:28:46,140 the second assessment report, the ocean got some depth. So it was a normal ocean 259 00:28:46,140 --> 00:28:53,040 with surface circulation and there was added volcano activity and sulphates. For 260 00:28:53,040 --> 00:29:01,830 the third assessment report, there was added... So this is all about which kind of 261 00:29:01,830 --> 00:29:10,720 processes were there in the climate models that were investigated in these assessment 262 00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:16,830 reports. Meaning there were climate models before that already had those processes 263 00:29:16,830 --> 00:29:22,210 included, but they were not investigated in the assessment reports. So this is a 264 00:29:22,210 --> 00:29:25,710 history of which climate models or which processes and climate models were 265 00:29:25,710 --> 00:29:30,650 investigated in assessment reports. And the third assessment report, there was 266 00:29:30,650 --> 00:29:35,360 another circulation edit for the ocean, the overturning circulations. And there 267 00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:41,580 were rivers added, which is interesting because I do something with rivers and 268 00:29:41,580 --> 00:29:46,580 there were aerosols added and a carbon cycle, meaning that the carbon that goes 269 00:29:46,580 --> 00:29:54,700 into the atmosphere also goes out. But yeah, not everything, or that half-time is 270 00:29:54,700 --> 00:30:02,060 not so good. For the AR5, er 4, there was chemistry added in the atmosphere and 271 00:30:02,060 --> 00:30:08,910 interactive vegetation, and for the AR5 there was ozone added and biomass burning 272 00:30:08,910 --> 00:30:15,930 emissions. And there is a history of processes, but there is also a history of 273 00:30:15,930 --> 00:30:21,470 computer modeling that might be really interesting. It started more or less in 274 00:30:21,470 --> 00:30:31,090 1904 with Vilhelm Bjerknes, who found equations that could be solved to obtain 275 00:30:31,090 --> 00:30:37,650 future states of the atmosphere. And he thought about that maybe these equations 276 00:30:37,650 --> 00:30:41,440 are really hard to solve and that task should be split and 277 00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:48,170 distributed to many people. So he basically mentioned a human computer and 278 00:30:48,170 --> 00:30:54,590 then Lewis Fry Richardson came in 1922 and did actually calculate all this. 279 00:30:54,590 --> 00:31:03,580 This did a six hour forecast solving the equations by hand, alone. And 42 days user 280 00:31:03,580 --> 00:31:09,060 time, meaning he himself calculated 42 days on it. But those 42 days were 281 00:31:09,060 --> 00:31:17,790 distributed over two years in total. So he was a little behind the weather, only to 282 00:31:17,790 --> 00:31:24,733 find out that it didn't give the correct answer. audience laughs That was long 283 00:31:24,733 --> 00:31:32,920 forgotten. But people said, yea, that's not quite practical. We cannot do that. 284 00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:38,890 But then computers came. In 1950, the first successful weather model was run on 285 00:31:38,890 --> 00:31:45,240 a computer called ENIAC, and in 1950, weather predictions were run twice a day 286 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:53,150 on an IBM 701. Nowadays we use supercomputers much larger and there's a 287 00:31:53,150 --> 00:31:59,470 whole list and rank and I will shortly introduce JEWELS to you: the Jülich Wizard 288 00:31:59,470 --> 00:32:03,820 for European Leadership Science. That's a supercomputer in Jülich and I would have 289 00:32:03,820 --> 00:32:09,960 shown you a picture, but you are not allowed, you are not simply allowed to 290 00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:16,640 take pictures on that campus. But since super computers are fancy shiny cupboards 291 00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:24,940 anyway, I thought this is OK. So we have these cupboards that look at shiny covers 292 00:32:24,940 --> 00:32:31,100 and then this covers their blades and each blade is called a standard node and 293 00:32:31,100 --> 00:32:39,760 consists of, in case of JEWELS, 2 times 24 cores with 2.7 GHz and it's hyper- 294 00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:45,440 threaded, meaning you can actually run 96 threads or processes on one of these 295 00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:56,360 nodes. And these notes have 12 times 8 GB of memory. And that's not quite much if 296 00:32:56,360 --> 00:33:00,780 you want to run a climate model but I'll come to that a little later. And in 297 00:33:00,780 --> 00:33:07,470 fact, in case of JEWELS, you have like three rows of five of these cupboards or 298 00:33:07,470 --> 00:33:18,040 something. And so there are in total 2271 standard nodes, 240 large memory nodes and 299 00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:26,030 56 accelerated nodes having something like GPUs. And I tell you about JEWELS, not 300 00:33:26,030 --> 00:33:29,900 because it's the fastest, actually, it's maybe the 30th, 301 00:33:29,900 --> 00:33:34,340 not even because it's the fastest in Germany - it was when it was built but 302 00:33:34,340 --> 00:33:41,440 that's a while ago - but I told you about that because JEWELS provides actually 303 00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:46,470 computing budget for the ESM project, the Advanced Earth System Modelling Capacity. 304 00:33:46,470 --> 00:33:53,560 And so there are actually earth system models run on that machine. So what I told 305 00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:57,040 you before, there is not so much memory on each node. 306 00:33:57,040 --> 00:34:00,470 So what you need to do is you need to cut down your problem and distribute them over 307 00:34:00,470 --> 00:34:07,130 the nodes. And then there needs to be some communication. So usually if the task 308 00:34:07,130 --> 00:34:13,849 is so simple, you can cut down your grid and put a number of grid cells to each 309 00:34:13,849 --> 00:34:18,990 node. And then there's communication between the nodes on the boundaries to 310 00:34:18,990 --> 00:34:25,589 solve the differential equations. Talking about grids, I would talk about the 311 00:34:25,589 --> 00:34:30,159 resolution. Also, again, a history of resolution of the climate models. For the 312 00:34:30,159 --> 00:34:36,399 1st assessment report, the region resolution was 500 kilometers times 500 313 00:34:36,399 --> 00:34:44,639 kilometers. And as I said before, you see these two yellow yellowish cells in the 314 00:34:44,639 --> 00:34:51,970 middle that are the Alps. For the second assessment report, the resolution already 315 00:34:51,970 --> 00:34:59,730 doubled or halved, depends on how you want to phrase it. For the TAR, it was 180 316 00:34:59,730 --> 00:35:09,410 kilometers for AR4, it was 120 kilometers. For the AR5, it's a 317 00:35:09,410 --> 00:35:17,230 little bit a different section I show you. And also, I show you two resolutions. 318 00:35:17,230 --> 00:35:23,190 There's a resolution for the higher models, which is 87, for example, 87.5 319 00:35:23,190 --> 00:35:30,440 kilometers. And for the very high resolution, 30 kilometers. And that's 320 00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:35,359 because climate models are not just one model, but they are different kinds of 321 00:35:35,359 --> 00:35:41,049 models that are coupled. And each model has its own resolution. So it's more or 322 00:35:41,049 --> 00:35:45,869 less like something like this. So we have a model for ice, we have a model for 323 00:35:45,869 --> 00:35:51,859 atmosphere, for ocean and for terrestrial. And this is coupled. So they all sent 324 00:35:51,859 --> 00:35:57,130 their data to a coupler or something. And that set was there as an input to the 325 00:35:57,130 --> 00:36:02,359 other model. So this is more or less like how climate models look. 326 00:36:02,359 --> 00:36:11,599 And each of the models, again, has several layers. For example, the terrestrial layer 327 00:36:11,599 --> 00:36:18,010 has a ground water part and the atmosphere. And so there's some input from 328 00:36:18,010 --> 00:36:23,910 the atmosphere to the soil and plant system. And then there's some water that 329 00:36:23,910 --> 00:36:30,740 is sinking into the groundwater and then coming out to the rivers. And yeah. So 330 00:36:30,740 --> 00:36:36,330 then we have the runoff. So meaning rivers get water. And then if you have a look to 331 00:36:36,330 --> 00:36:44,210 rivers and want to parallelize rivers, then it's not so easy because we have a 332 00:36:44,210 --> 00:36:48,180 source somewhere and the water has to go from the source or something that happens 333 00:36:48,180 --> 00:36:55,500 at the source has an impact to the sink, meaning this has to communicate all the 334 00:36:55,500 --> 00:37:05,990 way along to the sink. And that's where I come in. I actually do. So I show you the 335 00:37:05,990 --> 00:37:11,950 Danube, which you probably know better with the name Donau. At a resolution of 336 00:37:11,950 --> 00:37:22,470 five kilometers and basically cut down the Danube into sub river domains. And we 337 00:37:22,470 --> 00:37:28,850 need. If we parallelize these we need to calculate the subriver domains that are 338 00:37:28,850 --> 00:37:36,470 farther away from the sink first and it uses that in the first graph a little. So 339 00:37:36,470 --> 00:37:44,060 the grayish areas are calculated first and then it goes down farther to the sink. So 340 00:37:44,060 --> 00:37:52,131 just to tell you about what I do. So now we come back to the main question. So we 341 00:37:52,131 --> 00:37:59,269 answered where the sources of the graphs come from. Now we answer the questions: 342 00:37:59,269 --> 00:38:06,730 What is a representative concentration pathway? Meaning what we all did before 343 00:38:06,730 --> 00:38:13,461 was more or less telling how we get to that black line in the first section. And 344 00:38:13,461 --> 00:38:26,150 now we concentrate on the colored part where we have more graphs than one. So the 345 00:38:26,150 --> 00:38:31,160 working group 1 of the IPCC generally tests the selection of coupled models, that 346 00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:36,200 is what I told you before, matching specific conditions and investigates the 347 00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:40,740 output assuming different emission scenarios. Meaning we have a couple of 348 00:38:40,740 --> 00:38:46,000 climate models that are somehow different, for example in their grid. And then we 349 00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:53,130 have input data. The input scenarios would be, for example, the first one where we 350 00:38:53,130 --> 00:38:58,619 just do business as usual and don't reduce carbon emissions. 351 00:38:58,619 --> 00:39:05,640 The second would be we start with our way we do it today, but we would slowly change 352 00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:10,980 to renewable energy. And the third one would be a scenario where we do it 353 00:39:10,980 --> 00:39:15,869 spontaneously now or so. And that is an input scenario that we put into the 354 00:39:15,869 --> 00:39:22,730 systems and then we get out a model output, that says something about the future. So 355 00:39:22,730 --> 00:39:29,089 there is a black line that says, OK, this was our history until today. And from that 356 00:39:29,089 --> 00:39:35,730 on, we have three scenarios and they are represented upper to lower. So the upper, 357 00:39:35,730 --> 00:39:47,480 upper and right line represents the way where we do nothing or so. So this is 358 00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:55,681 basically what we do with scenarios. And the RCPs, Representative Concentration 359 00:39:55,681 --> 00:40:00,599 Pathways are scenarios that include time series of emissions and concentrations of 360 00:40:00,599 --> 00:40:06,779 the full suite of greenhouse gases and aerosols and chemical active gases as well 361 00:40:06,779 --> 00:40:16,069 as land use and land cover. So that is another graph from the AR5 and it shows 362 00:40:16,069 --> 00:40:21,660 again in the X-axis the years, it's the same timescale as before, but on the Y- 363 00:40:21,660 --> 00:40:28,599 axis we now have the rate of forcing, that is basically having this impact on our 364 00:40:28,599 --> 00:40:36,369 climate. And so each of the RCP scenarios has some kind of equivalent in 365 00:40:36,369 --> 00:40:42,690 radiative forcing. Yeah. So we have a 4 of these scenarios. 366 00:40:42,690 --> 00:40:52,920 The data for the RCP scenarios is coordinated by again the input4MIPS: input 367 00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:57,009 datasets for model and intercomparison projects that I told you before. And most 368 00:40:57,009 --> 00:41:01,890 of it is freely available and I gave you the link. So if you want to run your own 369 00:41:01,890 --> 00:41:07,609 climate model and test it with these input, you can find it there. And now I 370 00:41:07,609 --> 00:41:11,329 will explain the last part. The numbers and uncertainties. 371 00:41:11,329 --> 00:41:16,910 So first of all, again, to the graph from before the numbers behind the RCP refer to 372 00:41:16,910 --> 00:41:24,000 the radiative forcing at the end of the modeling period of 2100. Meaning if you 373 00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:30,819 follow one of these lines, for example, the red one to where it crosses the 2100 374 00:41:30,819 --> 00:41:45,910 line, then the number there is 8.5. So RCP8.5 is the name for this RCP scenario. 375 00:41:45,910 --> 00:41:52,769 But then the numbers of these different sections are the numbers of models used 376 00:41:52,769 --> 00:42:02,790 for this scenario in this time period. Yes. So as I said, there are lots of 377 00:42:02,790 --> 00:42:09,869 models intercompared and we even have different models for the different time 378 00:42:09,869 --> 00:42:19,321 periods. So until 2100 there are 39 models for the RCP8.5. And of all the all the 379 00:42:19,321 --> 00:42:28,890 rest, there are 12. And you see this little gap, this line break at 2100. And 380 00:42:28,890 --> 00:42:34,820 that is caused by the change of numbers of models that took took part in this 381 00:42:34,820 --> 00:42:40,779 project. And another interesting thing that we see here, and maybe the most 382 00:42:40,779 --> 00:42:48,720 important, is we have quite huge model uncertainties. So if we compare all the 383 00:42:48,720 --> 00:42:55,390 models, there's a huge band where we can't exactly say, OK, it's like this or that. 384 00:42:55,390 --> 00:43:05,980 But this band is still... About human uncertainties are more important, than this 385 00:43:05,980 --> 00:43:13,460 model uncertainties. We see tiny overlap, but mainly we can say how will the human 386 00:43:13,460 --> 00:43:22,930 behave derives our future. And that there will be this climate change we are talking 387 00:43:22,930 --> 00:43:31,150 about. So that was the main part about this three parts. And it's also it is also 388 00:43:31,150 --> 00:43:38,470 the most important part. Now, I could probably show you how you can install an 389 00:43:38,470 --> 00:43:44,260 impact model to your local PC, but probably I will have maybe something like 390 00:43:44,260 --> 00:43:53,339 three minutes left. So we'll switch to the conclusion. And yeah, maybe if it's 391 00:43:53,339 --> 00:44:02,089 arising as a question, I can do it. So what have we learned? Weather is the 392 00:44:02,089 --> 00:44:06,460 physical state of the atmosphere at a given time, while climate is average weather 393 00:44:06,460 --> 00:44:13,650 over 30 years. A climate model as a numerical representation of the climate 394 00:44:13,650 --> 00:44:23,910 system. And we learned that the main uncertainty is the way we solve a 395 00:44:23,910 --> 00:44:29,549 differential equations. I would probably have told you what a differential equation 396 00:44:29,549 --> 00:44:36,560 is in particular, but that would have taken maybe another lecture. Climate 397 00:44:36,560 --> 00:44:42,690 change is not proven throughout repeating one real experiment over and over again. 398 00:44:42,690 --> 00:44:45,490 So there is only one earth it is said. But models simulate our 399 00:44:45,490 --> 00:44:50,640 past climate pretty, well based on physical laws that were proven in real 400 00:44:50,640 --> 00:44:58,799 experiments. And then maybe the most important message. Human behavior 401 00:44:58,799 --> 00:45:03,690 is the primary source of climate change. Therefore, we talk about projections and 402 00:45:03,690 --> 00:45:12,440 not predictions. Meaning if we wanted to predict the climate, then we needed to 403 00:45:12,440 --> 00:45:18,390 simulate all human minds. And what we will decide on future. But we don't. That would 404 00:45:18,390 --> 00:45:28,030 be another talk again. We take what humans will decide in future as an input 405 00:45:28,030 --> 00:45:32,680 scenario, and with these input scenarios we create different output scenarios. So 406 00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:37,130 with different inputs scenarios, we get these different output scenarios. Where we 407 00:45:37,130 --> 00:45:43,339 can tell, OK, when we behave like that, this is the output. And human behavior 408 00:45:43,339 --> 00:45:51,710 scenarios dominate model uncertainties, meaning the question is what do we want? 409 00:45:51,710 --> 00:45:55,999 And if you go to a demonstration, the answer is usually climate justice. And I 410 00:45:55,999 --> 00:46:10,779 think that's a good answer. Thank you. 411 00:58:43,809 --> 00:58:44,224 postroll music 412 00:58:44,224 --> 00:58:44,640 subtitles created by c3subtitles.de in the year 2020. Join, and help us!