At the dawn of global climate modeling: the strange case of the Leith atmosphere model
<p>A critical stage in the development of our ability to model and project climate change occurred in the late 1950s–early 1960s when the first primitive-equation atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) were created. A rather idiosyncratic project to develop an AGCM was conducted virtua...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2020-04-01
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| Series: | History of Geo- and Space Sciences |
| Online Access: | https://www.hist-geo-space-sci.net/11/93/2020/hgss-11-93-2020.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>A critical stage in the development of our ability to model and project
climate change occurred in the late 1950s–early 1960s when the first
primitive-equation atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) were
created. A rather idiosyncratic project to develop an AGCM was conducted
virtually alone by Cecil E. Leith starting near the end of the 1950s. The Leith
atmospheric model (LAM) appears to have been the first primitive-equation
AGCM with a hydrological cycle and the first with a vertical resolution
extending above the tropopause. It was certainly the first AGCM with a
diurnal cycle, the first with prognostic clouds, and the first to be used as
the basis for computer animations of the results. The LAM project was
abandoned in approximately 1965, and it left almost no trace in the journal literature.
Remarkably, the recent internet posting of a half-century-old computer animation
of LAM-simulated fields represents the first significant “publication” of
results from this model. This paper summarizes what is known about the
history of the LAM based on the limited published articles and reports as
well as transcripts of interviews with Leith and others conducted in the 1990s
and later.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 2190-5010 2190-5029 |