Page 41 - Earth's Climate Past and Future
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CHAPTER 2
Climate Archives,
Data, and Models
Climate scientists use a wide range of techniques to extract, reconstruct, and
interpret the history of Earth’s climate. Much of this history is recorded in four
archives: sediments, ice, corals, and trees. In this chapter we first examine each
of these major climate archives. Then we explore how their climate records
are dated, the way Earth’s climatic history is recorded in each archive, and the
resolution of climate history each archive yields.
The interpretation of climate data is aided by the use of climate models to
test hypotheses of climate change in a quantitative way. In this chapter we
describe physical models that simulate the circulation of Earth’s atmosphere
and ocean and then examine the concept behind models used to track mass
movements of chemical tracers through the climate system.
