The Diurnal Cycle and its Depiction in the Community Climate System Model
Kevin Trenberth and Thomas Karl
National Center for Atmospheric Research
P. O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO 80307
email: trenbert@cgd.ucar.edu
voice: (303) 497 1318
fax: (303) 497 1333
Modern climate change is now large enough to exceed the bounds of natural variability, indicating that it is dominated by human influences. The main source of change is from human-induced regional and global changes in the composition of the atmosphere, primarily resulting from energy use, but local and regional changes in land-use also play a role. The main uncertainties are the rates of change that can be expected and how these changes will be manifested in changes in extreme weather events, sea level rise, changes in biodiversity, and so forth. Prospects are for changes in continue for many decades into the future. We are venturing into unknown with climate and the impacts could be quite disruptive. Although there has been recent progress in monitoring and understanding climate change, there remain many scientific, technical, and institutional impediments to enable planning for adaptation to and mitigation of the effects of climate change.
Cassidy P. Rush: cassrush@ucar.edu