Climate models

Abstract

What are climate models? On what basis are they built? How are they evaluated? Are they reliable? How is the climate of the future explored? This article attempts to answer these questions by highlighting the limitations of these models and the scientific questions they raise. Climate models are a valuable tool for understanding the climate and anticipating future changes. Above all, they constitute a digital laboratory that allows scientists to explore the complex processes that make up the climate system. Projections made with these models follow common protocols that allow the simulations produced by different models to be compared rigorously. In this way, we can quantify the modelling uncertainty in climate projections.