100 Years of Earth System Model Development

In this talk we briefly summarize our chapter on the development of global Earth System Models. Today’s models began as simple regional models of tropospheric weather systems. Over the past century, the physical realism of the models has steadily increased, while the scope of the models has broadened to include the global troposphere and stratosphere, the ocean, the vegetated land surface, and terrestrial ice sheets. Our chapter gives an approximately chronological account of the many and profound conceptual and technological advances that made today’s models possible. For brevity, our chapter omits any discussion of the roles of chemistry and biogeochemistry, and terrestrial ice sheets.