Professor Christopher K.R.T. Jones — Recipient of the 2020 MPE Prize
Professor Chris Jones is the Bill Guthridge Distinguished Professor in Mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Director of the Mathematics and Climate Research Network (MCRN). The 2020 MPE Prize recognizes Professor Jones for his many significant contributions to climate science and the mathematics of planet Earth.
Category Archives: Climate
Four reasons why the fight against climate change is likely to fail
Democrats in the Senate stayed up all night talking about the perils of climate change. But while there’s hope that technology, changing consumer and business practices or new policies could finally turn the tide and slow or reverse climate change, there are also good reasons to think those efforts will fail. Continue reading
Atmosphere and Ocean Dynamics through the Lens of Model Systems
The atmosphere and ocean are central components of the climate system, where each of these components is affected by numerous significant factors through highly nonlinear relationships. It would be impossible to combine all of the important interactions into a single model. Therefore, determining the contribution of each factor, in both a quantitative and qualitative sense, is necessary for the development of a predictive model, not to mention a better understanding, of the climate system. Continue reading
Posted in Atmosphere, Climate Modeling, Ocean
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Kofi Annan on Climate Politics
For the blog today we recommend reading what Kofi Anan wrote for the New York Times this week. Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Political Systems
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(Big) Data Science Meets Climate Science
Internet advertisers and the National Security Agency are not the only ones dealing with the “data deluge” lately. Scientists, too, have access to unprecedented amounts of data, both historical and real-time data from around the world. Continue reading
“Mathematics and Climate” — A New Text
Today, allow me to indulge in a bit of self-promotion on the occasion of the publication by the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) of a new textbook, “Mathematics and Climate,” co-authored by your friendly MPE Blogmaster, Hans Kaper, and my colleague, Hans Engler, at Georgetown University. Continue reading
Posted in Climate Modeling, Mathematics, Statistics
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Mathematics and Climate Research Network
The “Mathematics and Climate Research Network” (http://www.mathclimate.org/, MCRN) held its annual meeting, October 7-12 in North Carolina.
The MCRN is a virtual organization. It brings together leading researchers across the US to study the mathematics that underlies climate science. Research is done collaboratively in focus groups over the Internet, and researchers get together once a year at the annual meeting to explore new ideas and set the agenda for upcoming activities. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Mathematics, Workshop Report
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Two Books on Climate Modeling
I am normally a great fan of book reviews, but one which covered a book on a climate caught my attention. I was troubled with the review that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer because of the way it treated climate science in general and modeling in particular. Continue reading
Posted in Climate Modeling, Mathematics
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Understanding Earth’s Past Climate: How the Mathematical Sciences Can Help to Inform the Debate on Climate Change
What is the relationship between temperature measurements and greenhouse gas emissions, and what do these relationships tell us about the sensitivity of climate to increased greenhouse gas concentrations? How can historical temperature measurements inform this understanding? Continue reading
Posted in Paleoclimate, Statistics
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Statistics of Extreme Events
The floods that occurred earlier this month in Colorado remind us once again of the increasing talk about extreme weather events. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Extreme Events, Statistics, Weather
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Vector Transmission of Plant Viruses
One of the greatest limiting factors to modern agriculture are plant viruses. Climate change and the emergence of new viral strains affect the health and biodiversity of crops and of plants in general, while the continued growth of the human population emphasizes the need for sustainable agriculture. Continue reading
ICMS Tipping Points Workshop
This past week, the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) hosted a workshop in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. The workshop brought together an international group of mathematicians, statisticians, climate scientists, and ecologists to address the topic of tipping points. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Workshop Report
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The Need for a Theory of Climate
At the end of August, Nature Climate Change published an interesting paper showing that current global climate models tend to significantly overestimate the warming observed in the last two decades. A few months earlier, Science published a paper showing that four top-level global climate models, when run on a planet with no orography and entirely covered with water (an “aqua-planet”), produce cloud and precipitation patterns which are dramatically different from one model to another. Continue reading
Posted in Climate Modeling
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AGU Releases Revised Position Statement on Climate Change
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) recently released a revised version of its position statement on climate change. Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change
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Climate Science without Climate Models
In June 2012, more than 3,000 daily maximum temperature records were broken or tied in the United States, according to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Meteorologists commented at that time that this number was very unusual. By comparison, in June 2013, only about 1,200 such records were broken or tied. Was that number “normal”? Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Extreme Events, Probability, Statistics
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MPE2013+ Workshop at ASU, January 7-10, 2014
A workshop “Mathematics of Planet Earth: Challenges and Opportunities” will be held at Arizona State University, January 7-10, 2014. The workshop aims to expose students and junior researchers to the challenges facing our planet, the role of the mathematical sciences in addressing those challenges, and the opportunities to get involved in the effort. Continue reading
AGU Science Policy Conference, Washington, DC, June 24-26
The American Geophysical Union held its 2nd Annual Science Policy Conference in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, June 24-26. Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Conference Report, Geophysics
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Slithering Away: A Warming Planet Displaces Snakes’ Habitat
When paleobiologist Michelle Lawing joined field expeditions to collect rattlesnake data in the deserts of Southwestern America, she didn’t expect that her research would uncover such grim predictions for the rattlesnakes and their habitats in the future. Continue reading
Posted in Biosphere, Climate Change
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A Day to Celebrate
“This is a day to celebrate that we have a president of the US standing up
for the world in which we live and the future generations that will
inhabit it.” Chris Jones, Director, Mathematics and Climate Research Network Continue reading
Posted in Climate
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President Barack Obama’s remarks on climate change at Georgetown University
It was important for me to speak directly to your generation, because the decisions that we make now and in the years ahead will have a profound impact on the world that all of you inherit. Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Public Event
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DIMACS/CCICADA Collaboration on REU and Other Sustainability Projects
The Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) and the Command Control Interoperability Center for Advanced Data Analysis (CCICADA), both based at Rutgers University, have collaborated on some recent activities to enhance the summer experience for several undergraduate students participating in the DIMACS/CCICADA Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. DIMACS and CCICADA recently co-hosted a workshop on Science and Technology Innovations in Hurricane Sandy Research. Continue reading
Posted in Astrophysics, Atmosphere, Biodiversity, Biogeochemistry, Biology, Biosphere, Carbon Cycle, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Modeling, Climate System, Complex Systems, Computational Science, Conference, Conference Announcement, Conference Report, Cryosphere, Data, Data Assimilation, Data Visualization, Dimension Reduction, Disease Modeling, Dynamical Systems, Ecology, Economics, Energy, Epidemiology, Evolution, Extreme Events, Finance, General, Geophysics, Imaging, Inverse Problems, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Meteorology, Natural Disasters, Networks, Ocean, Optimization, Paleoclimate, Patterns, Political Systems, Probability, Public Event, Public Health, Renewable Energy, Resource Management, Risk Analysis, Social Systems, Statistics, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Tipping Phenomena, Transportation, Uncertainty Quantification, Weather, Workshop Announcement, Workshop Report
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The Social Cost of Carbon
What exactly is the definition of the “social cost of carbon” (SCC)? Who is interested in determining this quantity? Who is interested in its value? Can this even be done and, if so, how accurately? Continue reading
Posted in Climate Modeling, Economics, Social Systems
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Supermodeling Climate
MPE is a diverse subject, with respect to both applications and the mathematics itself. This was driven home to me at the recent SIAM Conference on Dynamical Systems in Snowbird, Utah, when I attended a session on “Supermodeling Climate.” Continue reading
Posted in Climate Modeling
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Opinion Article in Today’s Washington Post
In a recent op-ed for The Post, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) offered up a reheated stew of isolated factoids and sweeping generalizations about climate science to defend the destructive status quo. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, General
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Earth’s Climate at the Age of the Dinosaurs
Is it possible to compute the past climate of the Earth at the time of dinosaurs? Continue reading
Posted in Astrophysics, Mathematics, Paleoclimate
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Ode to Cinderella Science
Looking back, the “Keeling curve” of CO${}_2$ concentrations ranks among the most significant achievements of twentieth-century science. Continue reading
Posted in Carbon Cycle, Climate Change
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MPE-Related News Items
Several articles in the past few weeks have caught my attention. Continue reading
SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems, Snowbird, May 19-23
The SIAM Activity Group on Dynamical Systems (SIAG/DS) held its biennial meeting (DS13) at the Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort in Snowbird, Utah, May 19-23, 2013. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Conference Report, Mathematics
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Measuring Carbon Footprints
Releasing a ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere has quite a different effect on the global average temperature than releasing a ton of methane. Have you ever wondered how the effects of different greenhouse gases are compared? Continue reading
Posted in Atmosphere, Climate Change
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2013 SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems
The 2013 SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems (DS13) will be held at the Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, Snowbird, Utah, May 19-23. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Conference Announcement, Energy, Mathematics, Sustainability, Weather
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SIAM News — Examining the Dynamics of Ocean Mixing
“The science is clear,” climate scientist Emily Shuckburgh told an audience of nearly 800 people at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts on March 4. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Ocean
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Fields Institute — Focus Program on Commodities, Energy, and Environmental Finance
Commodities and energy markets continue to grow in activity and influence. Because of the growing concern about environmental issues inherent to the production and consumption of energy, quantitative insights into these marketplaces are crucial for sustainable development and policy making with respect to climate change. Continue reading
ICERM IdeaLab on Tipping Points, July 15-19, 2013
Climate tipping points refer to sudden rapid transitions of the Earth’s climate that are precipitated by initially small changes of the natural environment. For instance, tipping points could correspond to the activation of positive feedback loops that then lead to a major change in the climate. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Mathematics, Workshop Announcement
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SIAM Conference “Applications of Dynamical Systems” and MPE2013
The Earth is a giant dynamical system that evolves over time at various scales, depending on the state(s) of interest. Therefore, it is not surprising that a conference on applied dynamical systems would feature topics central to Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Conference Announcement, Mathematics
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How to Reconcile the Growing Extent of Antarctic Sea Ice with Global Warming?
It is well known that sea ice has a significant influence on the Earth’s climate system. While global warming causes Arctic sea ice to melt at a measurable and significant rate, sea ice surrounding Antarctica has actually expanded, with record extent in 2010. How can this somewhat paradoxical behavior be reconciled with global warming? Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Cryosphere
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Improving Algorithms in Climate Codes
Climate science relies on modeling and computational simulation. Improving the algorithms and codes related to climate modeling is an ongoing research effort. Continue reading
Posted in Climate Modeling, Mathematics
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Extreme Weather Event
It was unusually warm and windy for early April. We piled into the toasty lecture hall with drinks and sandwich wraps in hand. Dr. Smith, with his shock of white hair and the thin frame of a marathon runner, shed his sport jacket as he recounted the 2003 European heat wave. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, General, Statistics, Weather
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The Interplay Between Mathematical Models, Massive Data Sets, and Climate Science
Mathematical modeling and data analysis play a critical role in the mathematics of Planet Earth. Continue reading
Posted in Carbon Cycle, Climate Modeling
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Mathematics of Tipping Points
A lake that used to be clear, with a rich vegetation and a diverse aquatic life, suddenly becomes turbid, with much less vegetation and only bottom dwelling fish remaining. It turns out that the change comes from increased nutrient loading, but when the runoff leading to the nutrient inflow is reduced, the lake doesn’t become clear again – it remains murky. Continue reading
Posted in Climate Modeling, Mathematics
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MECC 2013 – Portugal, 21-28 March 2013
Last week I attended “MECC 2013” – the International Conference and Advanced School Planet Earth, Mathematics of Energy and Climate Change, Portugal, 21-28 March 2013. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Conference Announcement, Energy
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The Melting of Glaciers
We hear regularly some warnings of scientists on the important rise of the sea level that will occur before the end of the century. The worst scenario usually predicts a rise of less than a meter before 2100. Where does this number come from? Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change
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AWM Research Symposium at Santa Clara University, March 16
Last Saturday, at the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) Research Symposium at Santa Clara University, Inez Fung gave a wonderful spirited lecture on “Climate Math.” Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Conference Report
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How Good is the Milankovitch Theory?
In 1941, the Serbian mathematician Milutin Milankovitch (1879–1958) suggested that past glacial cycles might be correlated to cyclical changes in the insolation (the amount of solar energy that reaches Earth from the Sun). Continue reading
Posted in Paleoclimate
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Physics of Climate
The American Physical Society (APS) now has a Topical Group on the Physics of Climate (GPC). Continue reading
Posted in Climate, General
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CliMathNet Conference in Exeter, UK
The first CliMathNet conference will be held on 1st-5th July 2013 in Exeter, UK. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Conference Announcement
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Chaos in an Atmosphere Hanging on a Wall
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the 1963 publication of Ed Lorenz’s groundbreaking paper, “Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow,” in the Journal of Atmospheric Science. This seminal work, now cited more than 11,000 times, inspired a generation of mathematicians and physicists to embrace the nonlinearity governing our complex world. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, Mathematics, Meteorology
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A non-mathematician’s impressions of the Shuckburgh lecture
On Monday, March 4, Emily Shuckburgh delivered the second of the MPE2013-Simons Public Lecture Series talk, “Climate disruption: what math and science have to say” at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Continue reading
Posted in Climate, General, Public Event
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Quel climat pour demain ? L’apport des modèles
Les observations mettent en évidence un réchauffement global du climat et une augmentation de la concentration en gaz à effet de serre dans l’atmosphère. Continue reading
Posted in Climate Modeling
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Report: JSPS Symposium on “Climate Change”
On Friday, February 23, 2013, I attended a Symposium on “Climate Change,” organized by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and co-sponsored by the AAAS, NAS, NASA, NOAA and NSF. The symposium was held at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC. Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Conference Report
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Report on the Workshop “Stochastics in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics: Mathematical foundations and physical underpinnings”
Last week a workshop was held at the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) in Palo Alto, California, around the theme of stochastic PDEs and applications in climate and weather modeling: “Stochastic in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics: Mathematical foundations and physical underpinnings.” The workshop brought together a lively mix of specialists in climate modeling and weather prediction alongside experts in the fields of deterministic and stochastic partial differential equations. Continue reading
Workshop on “Mathematics of climate change, related hazards and risks”
A 5-day workshop on “Mathematics of climate change, related hazards and risks” will be held at the Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas (CIMAT) in Guanajuato, Mexico, July 29-August 2, 2013. This workshop, organized as part of the global program Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013 (MPE2013), is a satellite workshop associated with the 2013 Mathematical Congress of the Americas (MCA). Continue reading
A Personal “Day Zero” Experience
I have been involved with MPE2013 activities since the first organizing workshop was held at AIM in March of 2011, not as a mathematician with MPE areas of interest, but more as an institute staff member helping to bring about … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, General
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Paleoclimate Models
Mathematics allows us to explain some of Earth’s past climates. Indeed, they are linked in particular to variations of the orbit of the Earth. While the movement of the Earth is not quasi-periodic (i.e., a superposition of periodic movements), mainly … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Modeling, Paleoclimate
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Mathematics and Climate
What is the role of mathematics in climate science? Climate science, like meteorology, is largely a branch of physics; as such, it certainly uses the language of mathematics. But could mathematics provide more than the language for scientific discourse? Continue reading
Posted in Climate Modeling, Mathematics
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Recommended Reading
Earlier this week, I had the good fortune to attend a talk here in Washington, DC, by former Vice-President Al Gore on “The Future, Six Drivers of Global Change.” This is the title of his latest book, which had just appeared. The talk was sponsored by my favorite bookstore, “Politics and Prose.” Continue reading
Global Warming — Recommended Reading
Global warming, one of the most important science issues of the 21st century, challenges the very structure of our society. It touches on economics, sociology, geopolitics, local politics, and individuals’ choice of lifestyle. For those interested in learning more about … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, General
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From the JMM – Data Assimilation and the Mathematics of Planet Earth and Its Climate
This session, organized by Thomas Bellsky, Arizona State University, and Lewis Mitchell, University of Vermont, focused on applications of data assimilation to climate issues. It opened with a talk by Chris Jones of the University of North Carolina at Chapel … Continue reading
From the JMM — Conceptual Climate Models Short Course
Would you like to learn about conceptual climate models and teach them to your differential equations and modeling classes? Check out the online materials from the MAA Conceptual Climate Models Short Course at the JMM. The course was developed by … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Modeling, Conference Report
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Dear my imaginary teenage sister,
I was thrilled to get your last letter. I’m glad to see you are looking at some of the references I sent you last time. Figuring out who is responsible for higher atmospheric levels and how to respond to climate … Continue reading
Posted in Climate, General
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From the JMM — Dr. Emily Shuckburgh’s Invited Address
Dr. Emily Shuckburgh, the leader of the Open Oceans research group in the British Antarctic Survey, gave a terrific talk on the mathematics of climate science here in San Diego on the opening day (January 9) of the Joint Mathematics … Continue reading
Posted in Climate, General, Public Event
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Dear my little (well not so little anymore!) imaginary teenage sister,
Doing your school research paper on climate change sounds like a great idea! Let me see if I can get you started. I’ll even put a few references at the end in case you want to look those up for … Continue reading
Global Warming, Climate Change, Climate Research
It is often the case that at the end of one of my talks about some aspect of climate research or about the development of tools for the analysis of climate I get asked questions regarding global warming. Whether global … Continue reading
Posted in Climate Change, Risk Analysis
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