Sunday, 9 February 2003
Creating 3-D Jet Stream Circulation Visualizations to Investigate Present and Future Climate Conditions
Current global climate models are very capable of simulating the present climate and providing intricate projections of future conditions. The results of climate model projections are so full of information that they are often difficult to comprehend. To address this problem, the primary goal of this research is to investigate if three-dimensional visualizations can assist in understanding the atmosphere’s response to climate change. Output from the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Parallel Climate Model (NCAR-PCM) was used to create 3-D visualizations of the atmospheric jet stream circulation. The visualizations of the data (which are interpolated from global observations) were created using the graphics capabilities of the MATLAB software program. In my presentation I will describe both the creation process and the results obtained by examining the PCM jet stream circulation over a 100-year period from approximately 2002 to 2100. Preliminary results indicate that the jet stream will weaken in the northern hemisphere and strengthen in the southern hemisphere.
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