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World's biggest climate change experiment

23 February 2006

A unique climate change project which has already harnessed computer power to help experts assess the potential effects of climate change has now been given a wider reach through the BBC's climate change project.

Run by the climateprediction.net team, the experiment adds the processing power of millions of home PCs to run experiments. The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) provided much of the funding for the project through their e-Science programme.

Scientists need computer power to calculate the climate change facts - temperatures, winds, clouds, air and sea behaviour. The climate prediction electronic experiment helps the public take part and contribute their computer power. Now, through the BBC Science and Nature web site, the reach of the project will be even wider as people log on and take part in the science that affects all our lives.

The program doubles as a screensaver depicting the global model and, after logging on and installing the hardware, users need to do very little. The computers run the climate modelling programs and the experiment takes 3-4 months for a computer being used all of the time. There are no costs.

The project is ongoing and involves schools, businesses and individuals across the globe who can download the software (which incorporates the Met Office's climate model) for free. The program then runs in the background when a computer lies idle. The program runs through a climate scenario over the course of a few days or weeks, before automatically reporting results back to climate researchers at Oxford University and collaborating institutions worldwide via the internet.

Climateprediction.net participants have so far simulated over four million model years and donated over 8,000 years of computing time, making climateprediction.net easily the world's largest climate modelling experiment, exceeding the processing capacity of the world's biggest supercomputers.

It is hoped that a wider audience will now be reached through the BBC's involvement.

Briefing note: 10/06