Throughout our lives, we interact with climate conditions that shape daily experiences. These environmental conditions—the temperature, pressure, humidity and precipitation that make up the climate—are largely driven by interactions between solar energy and Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, land, and ice sheets. In recent decades, scientists have developed methods to record and analyze these interactions with a global perspective. These analyses form the foundation for climate science, a field that encompasses many disciplines from meteorology and oceanography to epidemiology, agriculture, and sociology.
While many of these studies focus on the present and future, others investigate climates of the past. Such paleoclimatic research relies on proxies, indicators (e.g., variations in the ratio of different isotopes of oxygen in ice cores, fossilized shells, lake sediments, and tree rings) that are interpreted to represent changes in past temperatures. Paleoclimatic studies also include a range of techniques for reconstructing past climates and for developing ensemble projections that inform reasoning about future changes in the climate.
Complex computer models—simulations of the Earth that use equations to describe how air, water and other climate system components interact—are also a mainstay of contemporary climate research. These models can be used to help explain, predict and manage the effects of anthropogenic climate change.
The Salata Institute is committed to supporting researchers whose work has the potential to make a real-world impact on climate challenges. Our Climate Initiative connects students and faculty with interdisciplinary collaborators, helps them stay up-to-date on emerging developments in climate research, and provides funding opportunities to advance their work.