GFDL - Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

Videos and Podcasts Produced by GFDL's CCVP Group Members

On this page, we display some examples of narrated videos and audio-only products created right here at NOAA GFDL. We invite you to download, view or listen to these educational materials from your computer.

[ CLICK HERE ] to go to our group's main
electronic media web page.

Videos Podcasts & On-Line Videos
Produced by GFDL's CCVP Group

Audio Podcasts & mp3 Downloads
Produced by GFDL's CCVP Group

Wallpaper Images For Your
Computer Monitor

  Climate Modeling 101 Video Series

Narrated videos covering some of the basics about the big and complex computer programs we call global climate models.

Climate Modeling 101: Grid Resolution -
how detailed is the climate model picture?

State-of-the-art global climate models divide our planet's atmosphere, ocean, land surface, and sea ice into millions of boxes. Higher spatial resolution - in other words, having smaller and more numerous boxes - allows a model to produce a more detailed simulation of the climate. But higher resolution comes at a price. Having more boxes mean more calculations need to be done, which means more computer power is needed.
In this video, we discuss the costs and benefits of higher spatial resolution, illustrating some key points with colorful animations from GFDL's newest high resolution global climate model.

• Note: If the closed caption .mov video does not work properly for you, please try this non-captioned version.

part 2 is currently
under development

Climate Modeling 101: Global Dynamical Climate Models -
what they are & what they are not (part 1)

In this video, we discuss, in general terms, how the core of global dynamical climate models are based on equations that describe fundamental physical laws (things like F=ma) and other physical, chemical, and biological processes important to climate. And we take a look at how a climate model marches forward in time, performing calculations representing many processes grid point by grid point - calculations that together simulate the time evolution of the global climate.

Click on the QuickTime logo to the left to access the .mov video.
(54 MB, 9:43 length, 720x480 video dimensions, closed captions)
Transcript [coming soon]

• Note: If the closed caption .mov video does not work properly for you, please try this non-captioned version.

  Climate Research Highlights Series

Narrated scientific animations showing the results of climate model experiments conducted at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.

For more information on these topics, including two page summaries and additional graphics, see our NOAA GFDL Climate Research Highlights web page.

Patterns of Greenhouse Warming Take-Home Points:

• The increase of surface air temperatures in response to increasing greenhouse gas levels will not be geographically uniform.
• Computer models indicate that 21st Century warming will occur more rapidly over continents than over oceans.
• The largest warming is expected to occur during the winter months in northern North America and northcentral Asia.

2:09 length. Four QuickTime versions are available:
• 1280 x 720 with closed captions (35 Mb)
• 1280 x 720 without captions (34 Mb)
• 640 x 360 with closed captions (12 Mb)
• 640 x 360 without captions (12 Mb)

Transcript
Two page summary

The Shrinking Arctic Ice Cap Take-Home Points:

• Arctic sea ice is projected to decline dramatically over the 21st century, with little late summer sea ice remaining by the year 2100.
• The simulated 21st century Arctic sea ice decline is not smooth, but contains periods of large and small changes.
• The Arctic region's surface air temperature is projected to warm at a rate about twice as fast as the global average.
  

2:24 length. Four QuickTime versions are available:
• 1280 x 720 with closed captions (7 Mb)
• 1280 x 720 without captions (7 Mb)
• 640 x 360 with closed captions (3 Mb)
• 640 x 360 without captions (3 Mb)

Transcript
Two page summary

Will The Wet Get Wetter And The Dry Drier Take-Home Points:

• In response to increasing greenhouse gas levels, climate models project an increase in the amount of water evaporating and precipitating over the Earth — a strengthening of the global
  hydrologic cycle.
• Precipitation is projected to increase in the near-equatorial regions, which tend to be wet in the present climate.
  
• In subtropical land areas — places that are already relatively dry — precipitation is projected to decrease during the 21st century.
• Mid-latitude storm track are projected to move poleward along with the poleward edge of the subtropical dry zones.
  

4:21 length. Four QuickTime versions are available:
• 1280 x 720 with closed captions (73 Mb)
• 1280 x 720 without captions (73 Mb)
• 640 x 360 with closed captions (22 Mb)
• 640 x 360 without captions (22 Mb)

Transcript
Two page summary

  Modeling Dynamic Surface Ocean Currents

Here we present a video tour of some major ocean currents as revealed by sea surface temperatures simulated in CM2.4 - one of GFDL's high resolution global climate models.

Modeling Dynamic Surface Ocean Currents:
from the GFDL CM2.4 climate model

A total of eight versions of the video are available. There are versions in two different sizes, with and without closed captions, and with and without annotations (arrows and labels that help identify the features discussed by the narrator).

NOAA GFDL Climate Research Conversations

Podcast-style interviews with members of GFDL's Climate Change, Variability & Prediction Group on topics related to their recently published research.

Tropical Storm Duration Research: A conversation with Tom Knutson & Gabe Vecchi.

NOAA GFDL climate researchers Tom Knutson and Gabriel Vecchi discuss the very active scientific research field that investigates trends and variations in tropical storms and hurricanes.

You may listen to this conversation either by using the controls directly above, or by selecting the mp3 audio icon to the right to download the 12MB mp3 file.

Related links:

• NOAA GFDL web page on Historical Changes in Atlantic Hurricane and Tropical Storms
• Research paper: Impact of Duration Thresholds on Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Counts, by C. Landsea, G. Vecchi, L. Bengtsson, and T. Knuston, (2009), Journal of Climate.
  Abstract: Full article may require subscription
  
• Transcript of this podcast.
  

Abrupt Climate Change Science: A conversation with Thomas Delworth.

NOAA GFDL climate researcher Tom Delworth talks about the science of Abrupt Climate Change and discusses a US Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) report on the topic that he helped author.

You may listen to this conversation either by using the controls directly above, or by selecting the mp3 audio icon to the right to download the 12MB mp3 file.

Related links:

• Abrupt Climate Change - the final report, Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.4 of the US Climate Change Science Program.
• Transcript of this podcast.