The Data Challenge
Presented by: Dr. James Bellingham, Dr. Bette Otto-Bliesner and Dr. Marc Fischer
This panel will review the challenges associated with collecting information that unambiguously and honestly portrays the changing climate of our planet. Lessons learned from collecting climate data over the last several decades, during which time scientists have worked to separate the small but important climate signal from a background of large natural variability, will be discussed. The challenges of predicting climate will be introduced, explaining why current models have difficulty making predictions about specific consequences of warming such as changes in precipitation. Finally, the highly interconnected nature of the climate system will be discussed; explaining why changes in remote and hostile locations such as the Arctic Ocean have consequences for the entire planet.