Is the climate getting WARMer? A framework and tool for climate data comparison

Abstract

Climate informatics connects climate science and data analytics to further the knowledge and understanding of climate data and its applications. The utilization of climate models has been at the core of climate informatics research. However, the correspondence between modelling predictions of climate parameters and their observed values remains an under-investigated issue. In this study, an analytical framework is presented that compares model-predicted values of climate parameters with their observed historic records. The resulting framework is a standardized methodology for operating climate data that can aid researchers and practitioners in performing comparison analysis. A visualization software tool named Weather Analysis Regional Model (WARM) is designed to implement the analytical framework. WARM operates in two regimes: one that compares climate data hosted on the web application and the second one that allows users to input their own datasets. Comparison results supplied by WARM can inform decision-making that employs climate model predictions.