Future Climate Through the Window of Climate Models

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing concern about climate change all across the globe. The increasing average global temperatures, the rising of sea level and submerging of low-lying islands, the loss of biodiversity, and shrinking of hotspots all over the world have led to increasing distress about the changing climate (Ozturk et al. 2015). Historically speaking, ever since the origin of the Earth, it is not the first time that the climate is changing; however, the enhanced anthropogenic contribution to climate change is what makes the entire scenario worrisome. As a result, scientists all over the world are thinking of various strategies to understand the phenomenon of climate change, to gain an insight about its implications, and also to quantify the changing climate by means of models. It is where the role of climate models comes into picture. These models attempt to quantify the changing climate by using physical laws of radiation and energy and studying the radiation behavior and flux at the surface of the Earth. So, there may be regional or global climate models to quantify the extent of change that the Earth is undergoing in terms of climate and also include clouds and aerosols in more complex models for understanding their dual role in radiative forcing of the Earth that eventually leads to climate change. Various emission scenarios of greenhouse gases are also discussed in this chapter that has been reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).