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Old 09-21-2013, 07:31 PM   #1076 (permalink)
Occasionally6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Arragonis View Post
There are 2 types of models in this area - ones that recreate the past and ones that predict the future.
No. A climate model is just that; a numerical description of how the Earth's climate behaves, based established physical phenomena. If it is an accurate model it will work when used to model the past, present or future.

One uncertainty in using them for prediction is that the actual changes in the driving forces, such as in atmospheric composition and land use are unknown. The work around is to use reasonable possibilities as "what ifs". You can't condemn a "prediction", nor the model that generated it, if the actual changes happen to not match the inputs used.

Last edited by Occasionally6; 09-21-2013 at 08:19 PM..