Marta I. Krynytzky
mkrynytz@u.washington.edu
arctic climate project
	motivations
	about AOGCMs
	what is the IPCC
	methods
	results
	summary

The Effects of Global Warming in High Latitudes:
Reduction of Sea Ice

About Atmospheric-Ocean General Circulation Models (AOGCMs):

Each model incorporates and couples atmospheric, oceanic, sea ice and land components, including various aspects of chemical, physical and biological components in each environment. The models vary in design, resolution, and grid formats, with a range of gridbox sizes. All of the models I investigated are independently designed under an academic or scientific organization that is participating in the IPCC's 4th Assessment Report for 2007.

Fig. 1: With gains in process knowledge and computer power, climate models successively increase in number of components and complexity. The first models only incorporated the earth's atmospheric circulation; today models are on the verge of having eight components, including vegetation dynamics and atmospheric chemistry. Figure from the IPCC 3rd Annual Report: Climate Change 2001: Working Group I: The Scientific Basis.