PIRSA:16050018

Tim Palmer: Climate Change, Chaos and Inexact Computing

Palmer, T. (2016). Tim Palmer: Climate Change, Chaos and Inexact Computing. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/16050018

Palmer, Tim. Tim Palmer: Climate Change, Chaos and Inexact Computing. Perimeter Institute, May. 04, 2016, https://pirsa.org/16050018 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:16050018,
            doi = {},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/16050018},
            author = {Palmer, Tim},
            keywords = {Other},
            language = {en},
            title = {Tim Palmer: Climate Change, Chaos and Inexact Computing},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2016},
            month = {may},
            note = {PIRSA:16050018 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

Tim Palmer University of Oxford

Collection
Talk Type Public Lectures
Subject

Abstract

How well can we predict our future climate? If the flap of a butterfly’s wings can change the course of weather a week or so from now, what hope trying to predict anything about our climate a hundred years hence? In this talk I will discuss the science of climate change from a perspective which emphasises the chaotic (and hence uncertain) nature of our climate system. In so doing I will outline the fundamentals of climate modelling, and discuss the emerging concept of inexact supercomputing, needed - paradoxically perhaps - if we are to increase the accuracy of predictions from these models. Indeed, revising the notion of a supercomputer from its traditional role as a fast but precise deterministic calculating machine, may be important not only for climate prediction, but also for other areas of science such as astrophysics, cosmology and neuroscience.