Dr Sylvia Knight
Date: Tuesday 2 November
Time: 10.30 – 11.30am
Join our video conference to talk with Dr Sylvia Knight about:
- how weather and climate are forecast
- why we can't say for sure how the climate will change
- how you can help predict 21st century climate
- The climateprediction.net project
Dr Sylvia Knight works in the atmospheric, oceanic and planetary physics department of Oxford University. She is currently working on a project called climateprediction.net.
Sylvia is looking forward to talking to you and your students about the weather, her work, and how you can involve your students in the climateprediction.net project in 2005.
TO REGISTER FOR THIS VIDEO-CONFERENCE CONTACT jane@tki.org.nz BY Friday 29 October
Telephone: (04) 382 6508
Background Information
What is climateprediction.net?
Climateprediction.net is the largest experiment to try and produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century.
As the model runs, participants can watch surface temperature, precipitation, cloud and pressure change over days, seasons and years in their world. If they want to, they can also see if their model is warming or cooling. On the website, they can see how their model compares to everyone else's.
Why?
"Most people agree that the climate will warm up over the next century, but there is huge variation in the scientific estimates of the amount by which the climate will warm."
Climate change, and our response to it, are issues of global importance, affecting food production, water resources, ecosystems, energy demand, insurance costs and much else. There is a broad scientific consensus that the Earth will probably warm over the coming century; climateprediction.net should, for the first time, tell us what is most likely to happen.
Useful links for more information: