Illuminating a world in flux
Climate research is vital to understanding the natural forces that control a planet’s environment, as well as its impact on humans and wildlife. It enables us to determine the extent of current global warming and predict future changes, such as whether tropical forests are likely to continue to serve as carbon sinks. Scientists conduct climate research using a wide range of techniques, from studying ice cores to sampling air and tracking greenhouse gas levels to building complex computer models that can run on Department of Energy supercomputers.
Many people equate the word “climate” with weather, but in fact, climate refers to atmospheric conditions over a long-term period of years or decades. Climate scientists study everything from how a warming climate will affect water resources to how human activity can impact the planet’s ecosystems.
The findings of climate research drive international policy, with governments more likely to take action on emissions reductions and sustainable technologies when scientific evidence supports them. In addition, public engagement in climate research – through access to research results that are both timely and culturally relevant – can help communities develop adaptive strategies to meet local challenges.
Scientists have been working on the climate since the Scientific Revolution, when physicist Joseph Fourier discovered that the atmosphere absorbs infrared radiation and reradiates it back into space, and Irish mathematician John Tyndall demonstrated that water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases can trap heat. Since the late 1800s, studies by Svante Arrhenius and others have shown that increasing concentrations of these heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere can cause the Earth to warm.
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