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NASA Releases Free Global Climate Model Software

Posted by samzenpus on from the hurricane-in-the-classroom dept.

ink_polaroid writes "NASA has released its Educational Global Climate Model (EdGCM) for high school and university desktop computers. The software incorporates a 3-D climate model developed at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), New York. It wraps complex computer modeling programs with a graphical interface familiar to most PC users."

10 of 224 comments (clear)

  1. Simulated doomsday? by sjrstory · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It would be pretty cool to simulate enviromental doomsday scenarios such as the one seen in the movie The Day after Tomorrow.

  2. Nice, if the curriculum allowed for it... by 2advanced.net · · Score: 5, Interesting

    EdGCM permits teachers and students to explore the fundamentals of climate science utilizing tools identical to those used in major climate research programs. Many simple climate experiments are possible (e.g. How does the sun warm the planet?), but, it is also possible to conduct in-depth investigations of current events, in near real-time, as they are being studied by climate scientists

    That's great. One of my favorite software packages in the world is Nasa's World Wind, but when I tried to show it to my parents (both high school science teachers), the reaction was the same: we don't have time or computers to use this.

    The state of public education (at least in California) is so poor that this is going to be great for college-level students, but much of the target audience will be left out due to budgets and a testing-centric curriculum.
    --
    2advanced.net - Business Quality Hosting
    1. Re:Nice, if the curriculum allowed for it... by dj245 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This program looks awesome. I think it just convinced me to take Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (the mathematical study of such things as this) next year even though its a ridiculously rigorous course. So even if NASA doesn't bring technology to market (and they do all the time) they stimulate a desire to learn in people who otherwise would not. And thats gotta be worth something. Maybe they should demand some Department of Education funds for taking over some of their duties (promoting education).

      --
      Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
    2. Re:Nice, if the curriculum allowed for it... by Llynix · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That's great. One of my favorite software packages in the world is Nasa's World Wind, but when I tried to show it to my parents (both high school science teachers), the reaction was the same: we don't have time or computers to use this.

      That's sad. If they took the time and found a computer I think their students would be better off. But them I'm a little biased as a developer for World Wind. We should have real time weather from NOAA in the next version.

  3. Terraforming mars by j1m+5n0w · · Score: 3, Interesting

    More interesting would be simulating the terraforming of mars. Could we raise the temperature sufficiently by introducing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere? How about if we used a massive orbital mirror? Or maybe we could grind one of the moons into dust and make an artificial ring to increase ambient light. Inquiring minds want to know.

  4. For those who are interested... by StarfishOne · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You might also want to check out the following (Distributed Computing) project:

    ClimatePrediction.net

  5. Re:Read Crichton's "STATE OF FEAR" by IvyMike · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Honestly, I'm not sure exactly the point you're making, but since you mentioned "State of Fear", I'm going to take this opportunity to point out Realclimate.org's great commentary on "State of Fear". It's not a short article, so here's the summary:

    In summary, I am a little disappointed, not least because while researching this book, Crichton actually visited our lab and discussed some of these issues with me and a few of my colleagues. I guess we didn't do a very good job. Judging from his reading list, the rather dry prose of the IPCC reports did not match up to the some of the racier contrarian texts. Had RealClimate been up and running a few years back, maybe it would've all worked out differently...

    They have a followup article here., in which they comment a little more on the book, and they also comment on Crichton's lecture Aliens Cause Global Warming.

    If you're not RealClimate.org, here's how the site describes itself: "RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. We aim to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary. The discussion here is restricted to scientific topics and will not get involved in any political or economic implications of the science." I really think it's one of the better sites on the topic.

    My personal take on it? Based on themes present in almost all of his fiction, Crichton really doesn't like scientists. :)
  6. Expect the climate discussions to improve by LucidBeast · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, now that we all have a climate simulation software on our computers we can all backup our claims what will happen to earth with good simulation data.

  7. Re:Fossil fuels PREVENT global warming by Kavli · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The problem we have is two-fold:
    People can't accept the fact that our environment is not static. Temperature and other climatic effects has varied throughout the centuries way before humans started burning fossile fuel. These historic changes were not subtile either, some being quicker than we see today.

    The other factor is financial. Most governments have their economy very much rooted around taxes and levys on fossile fuels. If the CO2-factor went away, it would be harder to justify taxation, and there would be problems.

    The only thing we know for sure is that we know way to little about the impact CO2, water vapour (which is hardly mentioned in the UN Climate Report of 2001) and methane.

    An interersting article about the water vapour-effect can be found at:

    http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/16/5/7/3

  8. Carl Sagan's nuclear winter software by peter303 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Be careful of the quality of software. In the 80s there was a lot of hype about climate modeling based on a simple planetary weather program. The software represented the atmosphere as a single vertical profile of physical conditions. When modelers plugged in the post-nuclear dust clouds it prodicted huge temperature drops. However, more sophisticated "3D" models thta inorporated oceans and continents and wind currents found much smaller effects. These defects didnt really slow down biased scientists who kept on promoting their political agendas nonetheless.