CLIMATE SCIENCE: Penultimate Monsoons

The meteorology of monsoons

Monsoon circulations are major features of the tropical atmosphere, which, primarily through the rainfall associated with them, are of profound importance to a large fraction of the world’s population. While there is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes a monsoon, there are some criteria that are widely accepted (see, e.g., the discussions in Ramage (1971), Webster (1987), and...

Uncertainty in climate science and climate policy

This essay, written by a statistician and a climate scientist, describes our view of the gap that exists between current practice in mainstream climate science, and the practical needs of policymakers charged with exploring possible interventions in the context of climate change. By ‘mainstream’ we mean the type of climate science that dominates in universities and research centres, which we wi...

Climate Change Science Compendium

Beyond climate science.

THE UNITED STATES IS MOVING RAPIDLY INTO AN AGE OF CLIMATE-RELATED DECISIONS INVOLVING mitigation and adaptation, following decades of focusing on reducing uncertainties in attribution and prediction. But the nation lacks a deliberate approach to generating the “environmental intelligence” needed to support good decisions. It is critical to create a single, credible, authoritative source of cli...

Climate Change Science Compendium