A Google search for "improvements in climate models" returns 2.64 million results. Of those, Google Scholar claims 138,000 articles about the search term.
Of the first 20 results in Google Scholar, only one was written after the year 2000. Published in the Journal of Climate, it describes The Community Climate System Model, Version 2. However, searching with the same term on the Journal of Climate's search engine returns 3,348 results. Sorting in reverse chronological order, the first 10 were published this month, April 2007. In fact, I counted 279 entries published in the past year. Here are the annual results for fifth years historically:
2006: 273
2001: 203
1996: 162
1991: 54
1986: 49
1981: 24
1976: 14
1971: 3
1966: 0
Global warming is a popular field for researchers and government funding is there. Advances in computer hardware and software means that improvements in global climate models are possible, as well as desirable.
The fact that the last time entries doubled over a five-year span was between 1991 and 1996 is a bit disturbing. A new field of science with optimum research conditions that cannot sustain doubling of cutting edge knowledge after a mere 25 years cannot bode well for those who depend on doubling every five years.
Maybe the papers are four times as good...
Comments