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Asked by iqramahmood to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 27 Jun 2012.
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James Pope answered on 27 Jun 2012:
Hi iqramahmood,
That is the key aim for my research, to improve our understanding of climate change. I specifically work on understanding a process called climate sensitivity, which is the temperature change we expect for a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We presently estimate this value to be between 2°C and 4.5°C with a most likely value of 3°C. It is important we have a better idea of this value as it is important for how we model what climate change will mean for temperature in the future. If it is higher than 3°C or 4°C then we will see more warming and climate change will be worse than we presently think, but if it is lower, then climate change won’t be as bad.
Hopefully, I help us get a better idea of what this value is and from that we will improve our understanding of how severe climate change is going to be!
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Nuala Carson answered on 27 Jun 2012:
Hi iqramahmood,
Most of the people I work with in some way have their work linked to global warming and climate change. We are all really worried about it so the government gives us money to try and understand it. My research will help to improve to computer models we use to make predictions of how the earth will be in the future. computer models try to take into account all the things that go on in the earth system, from large scale ocean circulation and atmospheric winds to how water in stopped by trees! Its pretty hard to try and get all these different parts right! So I am researching something that the models are currently getting wrong (well actually they don’t include it at all!)
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