Summary
Contents
Subject index
This unique addition to reference literature provides an introduction to the major concepts and contemporary issues that are essential for students of environmental science and environmental studies to know. With over 200 entries authored by world-class names like Anthony Brazel, John Day and Edward Keller, this text is divided into six sections: Environmental Science, Environments, Paradigms & Concepts, Processes & Dynamics, Scales & Techniques, and Environmental Issues.
Global Circulation Models (GCMs)
Global Circulation Models (GCMs)
A general circulation model (GCM) or global climate model is designed to determine climate behaviour by integrating various fluid-dynamical, chemical, or biological equations that are either derived from physical laws empirically constructed. There are atmospheric GCMs (AGCMs) as well as ocean GCMs (OGCMs). The two models can be coupled to form an atmosphere-ocean coupled general circulation model (AOGCM). With additional components (e.g., a sea ice model or a land model), the AOGCM becomes the basis for a full climate model. The first AOGCMs were constructed in the late 1960s by Syokoru Manabe and Kirk Bryan at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, NJ. Since its first construction in the 1960s, over a dozen institutions around the world now ...
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