A research team led by UW-Madison atmospheric and oceanic sciences professor Galen McKinley released new information regarding the capacity for oceans to absorb carbon dioxide emissions, according to a university news release.
The researchers hope their model will more accurately address climate questions.
“It’s an evolution in our ability to use climate models to make predictions, particularly on timescales of a few decades,” McKinley said in the release.
The predictive capacity of the team’s model will better anticipate the timeline and scale of climate events, according to the release. This could then create better policy responses to climate change.
One of the most significant breakthroughs is the model’s focus on how humans affect the climate.
“We’re better able to see when human activity begins to affect the ocean-carbon sink,” McKinley said. “This is really a first step in using this new technique to understand a host of issues in terms of climate change.”
While the predictive power of the model is not fully evident now, the researchers say they hope it will be a powerful tool in the future.
“What does Wisconsin look like 10 years from now? That’s really hard to say,” McKinley said. “But we can provide ranges of expectations with broad variability, and use these techniques to quantify it.”
